Effects of Increased Social Support and Lifestyle Behaviors in a Domiciliary for Homeless Veterans

James P. LePage, Marva Bluitt, Houston McAdams, Christopher Merrell, Teresa House-Hatfield, Elizabeth Garcia-Rea

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

For improvement of the psychosocial rehabilitation environment of a homeless Domiciliary Residential Rehabilitation and Treatment Program (DOM-RRTP), increases in lifestyle behaviors (e.g., recreation, social, spiritual/coping, and educational) and altruistic activities (e.g., helping others on the unit or in the community) were targeted. With the use of contingency management in a quasi-experimental design, homeless residents were encouraged to engage in higher rates of desired behaviors. The treatment environment was reported by 66 veterans during a baseline analyses and 35 after the contingency management program was implemented. After the implementation of the contingency management program, a significant increase in healthy lifestyle and altruistic behaviors was observed. Furthermore, comparing patients' perceptions pre- and postimplementation showed significant improvement in the psychosocial rehabilitation environment in both expected areas (e.g., supportiveness) and unexpected areas (e.g., anger and aggression, program clarity). Overall, the study revealed improvements in the number of healthy lifestyle behaviors, and altruistic activities covaried with improvement in the overall rehabilitation environment. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)16-24
Number of pages9
JournalPsychological Services
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2006

Keywords

  • homeless
  • therapeutic environment
  • veteran

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Applied Psychology

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