Psychiatric services : a journal of the American Psychiatric Association
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Job Offers to Individuals With Severe Mental Illness After Participation in Virtual Reality Job Interview Training.
Individuals with severe mental illness have low employment rates, and the job interview presents a critical barrier for them to obtain competitive employment. Prior randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicated that virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) improved job interviewing skills among trainees. This study assessed whether VR-JIT participation was associated with greater odds of receiving job offers in the six-months after completion of training. ⋯ Results provide preliminary support that VR-JIT is a promising intervention associated with enhanced vocational outcomes among individuals with severe mental illness. Given that participants had minimal access to standardized vocational services, future research could evaluate the effectiveness of VR-JIT among individuals with and without access to standardized vocational services as well as evaluate strategies to implement VR-JIT within a large community mental health service provider.