# Acceptability and Feasibility of Work-Oriented, Veteran-Centric, Social-Cognitive Skills Training

> **NIH VA I21** · MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Supported employment is an evidence-based practice that places individuals with serious mental illness
into competitive employment. Employment specialists are embedded into mental health teams and work with
individuals to identify employment consistent with their interests and personal goals. Supported employment
programs consistently have been found to be effective at job placement. However, maintenance of
employment continues to be a significant challenge for individuals living with a serious mental illness.
Interpersonal difficulties often contribute to job terminations. Individuals with a serious mental illness often
have difficulty with interpreting emotional expressions, perspective taking, and social problem-solving. Thus, in
addition to assistance with job placement, individuals living with a serious mental illness are also likely to
benefit from intervention focused on developing skills to manage the social demands of work. An existing,
evidence-based, psychosocial skills intervention, Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT), will be
adapted for use in this study. SCIT targets emotion recognition, perspective taking, and social problem-solving
skills. The curriculum will be tailored to work settings and to Veterans with serious mental illness. Then, a pilot
study will be conducted to assess the acceptability of integrating this psychosocial skills training with supported
employment and the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial in the future.
 To accomplish the first objective, structured stakeholder interviews will be conducted with Veterans who
have participated previously in supported employment (n = 20) and employment specialists at the VA (n = 5) to
identify educational topics and work examples to incorporate into SCIT. The curriculum will be piloted to elicit
feedback on the session content and flow. Then, to assess acceptability and feasibility, an open trial pilot
study will be conducted with 20 Veterans with serious mental illness who are enrolled in the supported
employment program at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. Upon study enrollment, participants will
attend one 2-hour skills training session weekly for 13 weeks. Group size will be limited to 4-6 participants. To
promote generalization of skills training, assignments will be given weekly to prompt participants to use skills
outside of group. After completion of skills training, participants will continue to meet with their employment
specialist. Materials will be developed for the employment specialists to use in session to prompt participants
to continue to use skills at work. Participants will complete baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up
assessments so that social functioning, relationship quality, work performance, self-efficacy, quality of life, and
symptom severity can be measured. In addition, participants and employments specialists will complete an
individual, semi-structured, qualitative exit interview that will (1) ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10745318
- **Project number:** 5I21RX004068-02
- **Recipient organization:** MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Tasha Marie Nienow
- **Activity code:** I21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-12-01 → 2024-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10745318

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10745318, Acceptability and Feasibility of Work-Oriented, Veteran-Centric, Social-Cognitive Skills Training (5I21RX004068-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10745318. Licensed CC0.

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