Evaluating Impacts of CSS for Veterans and Their Families in Ukraine

Summary

This cluster-randomized controlled trial (c-RCT) evaluates the effectiveness of a brief, single-session psychosocial workshop, "CETA Short Session" (CSS), for reducing symptoms of distress and functional impairment and increasing treatment engagement among conflict veterans and their families in Ukraine. The CSS workshop includes psychoeducation, review of a self-assessment, safety screening, and training in cognitive coping. This will be evaluated against a single-session comparison workshop that includes all of the same workshop elements except for cognitive coping. Registration for both conditions includes completion of a self-assessment. Participants with safety concerns or very severe symptoms will be immediately referred to mental health treatment; others will be asked to wait for one month before being reassessed and, if indicated, referred to mental health treatment. Both conditions include an individual check-in phone call one week after the workshop. Distress and functional impairment outcomes will be assessed one month from baseline. Treatment engagement outcomes will be assessed three months from referral. The investigators hypothesize that individuals attending sessions randomized to CSS will show greater improvement in mental health outcomes and greater treatment engagement than those attending sessions randomized to the comparison condition.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2019, the RCT was paused to develop and pilot an online version of both the CSS and comparison workshop. The trial protocol has now been expanded to continue the effectiveness trial while allowing for both online and \[when/if feasible\] in-person intervention delivery.

Conditions

• Psychosocial Problem
• Psychological Distress
• Engagement, Patient

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

CETA Short Session (CSS)

CETA Short Session (CSS) is a brief, low-intensity psychosocial intervention incorporating foundational components of the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA). CETA is an 8-12 session, transdiagnostic psychotherapy for common mental disorders. CSS was designed to serve as both a prevention/support approach for a broader range of needs, as well as an engagement/outreach strategy to identify and refer individuals to treatment. CSS is delivered in a group format over approximately two hours and consists of: 1) Psychoeducation: instruction about the brain and brain functioning, including normalization of psychological responses to stress and a brief self-assessment; 2) Safety: screening and referral for individuals identified as at risk of harm to self or others; and 3) Cognitive coping: based on the cognitive triangle, participants practice identifying an unhelpful thought changing it to a more helpful alternative, and examining how these thoughts impact feelings and behaviors.

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducation and Safety

This intervention is the same as CSS with the exception that the cognitive coping skill training is removed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  collaborator FED

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Judy Bass, PhD · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-02-28

Primary Completion

2022-02-23

Completion

2022-02-23

Countries

• Ukraine

Study Locations