Homelessness Prevention: Psychiatric Care With Representative Payeeship
Homelessness Prevention: Psychiatric Care With Representative Payeeship
Money management is a neglected issue in maintaining persons with mental illness in the
 community. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed whether a community-based
 representative payee program, i.e., money management of Social Security and/or VA benefits,
 coordinated with VA psychiatric care (CO-RP) could be more effective than customary treatment
 for veterans who had no representative payee.
Background:

 Money management is a neglected issue in maintaining persons with mental illness in the
 community. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed whether a community-based
 representative payee program, i.e., money management of Social Security and/or VA benefits,
 coordinated with VA psychiatric care (CO-RP) could be more effective than customary treatment
 for veterans who had no representative payee.

 Objectives:

 After 184 subjects were randomly assigned to CO-RP experimental group or customary care
 control group, hypotheses were that the CO-RP group would experience: 1) more frequent
 enrollment in the representative payee program, 2) improved residential status, 3) improved
 health-related quality of life, including less mental illness symptomatology, 4) less
 substance abuse, 5) improved money management.

 Methods:

 Six-month interviews were completed on 152 of 184 possible subjects (83%) and 12-month
 interviews were completed on 149 of 184 possible subjects (81%). The six and twelve-month
 outcomes were analyzed with analysis of covariance using data from the baseline pretest.

 Status:

 Completed.
Inclusion Criteria:

 Severe mental illness; Inability to manage money; VA patient

 Exclusion Criteria: