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Subgroups
The evaluators assigned participants to one of two intervention conditions (Self Study or the full program) or to a comparison condition. Participants were assigned to the study on a rotating basis, with assignment to the intervention group taking place one week and assignment to the comparison group taking place the following week. Their probability of assignment was thus fully conditional on the week they enrolled in the study. This approach prevented against delays between study enrollment and receipt of the intervention services, which were provided once every three weeks to participants in the full program condition. The current review only includes participants assigned to the Self Study and comparison conditions.
The authors examined participant outcomes 3, 6, and 12 months after they enrolled in About Face. The study team enrolled the first study participant in June 2009, and collected study data through November 2010.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) North Texas Health Care System
The About Face—Self Study intervention provided formerly incarcerated veterans who were experiencing mental illness with access to supplemental resources in the Veterans Employment Resource Center (VERC). VERC staff provided intervention participants with standard VERC services, which included internet and telephone access for job searches, support with resume writing, video training for applying to and interviewing for jobs, and two videotaped practice interviews. The study team also provided participants with the About Face vocational manual and instructed them to study the manual in the first week after they enrolled in the study. The 72-page manual provided person-centered strategies to find employment, such as past employment challenges and successes and identifying individualized job skills, and more general approaches to finding a job, such as developing resumes and using strategies for successful job interviews. VERC staff did not provide additional training or support on the manual itself, instead offering participants information about how to use the standard VERC resources.
The comparison group received access to the standard resources offered by the VERC but did not receive the About Face vocational manual.
None
The About Face study took place in Dallas, TX, at the Dallas Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center.