SSA administers the Vocational Resource Facilitator Demonstration (VRFD) under the Interventional Cooperative Agreement Program (ICAP). ICAP allows SSA to partner with various non-federal groups and organizations to advance interventional research connected to the SSI and SSDI programs. VRFD tests the Vocational Resource Facilitator (VRF) intervention, which helps newly injured spinal cord injury or disease (SCI) or brain injury (BI) patients in pursuing their employment goals. The VRFD provides empirical evidence on the impact of the intervention on patients in several critical areas: (1) employment and earnings; (2) SSI and SSDI benefit receipt; and (3) satisfaction and well-being. A rigorous evaluation of VRFD is critical to help SSA and other interested parties assess promising options to improve employment-related outcomes and decrease benefit receipt. The VRFD evaluation uses a randomized control experimental design that includes one treatment group and one control group. Control group members receive a referral for services to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS), New Jerseyâs state Vocational Rehabilitation agency. The treatment group receives a referral to DVRS and employment services from a resource facilitator (RF). RFs are fully integrated members of clinical teams who engage with injured workers during inpatient rehabilitation about return to work. The central research questions include: fully integrated members of clinical teams who engage with injured workers during inpatient rehabilitation about return to work. The central research questions include:
⢠Was the intervention implemented as planned?
⢠What are key considerations for scaling up or adopting the VRF model at other facilities?
⢠What were the impacts of VRF on outcomes of interest?
⢠Did treatment group members earn or work more than control group members?
⢠Were treatment group members relatively less likely to apply to or receive SSI or SSDI benefits?
⢠Did treatment group members experience greater satisfaction and well being than control group members?
⢠What were the benefits and costs of the demonstration across key groups?
The proposed public survey data collections supports three components of the planned implementation, impact, and benefit-cost analyses. The data collection efforts provides information that is not available in SSA program records about the characteristics and outcomes of VRFD participants in the treatment and control groups. Respondents are newly injured SCI and BI patients, who will provide written consent before agreeing to participate in the study and are randomly assigned to one of the study groups.
When we last cleared this IC in 2023, the burden was 364 hours. However, we are currently reporting a burden of 52 hours. This change stems from a decrease in the completion time from 2 minutes to 1 minute. Because of the provisions under ICAP, the VRFD project completed the initial and recruitment phase and moved into the evaluation phase. Because we moved on to the evaluation stage, we do not have any learning costs associated with this IC or any wait time for teleservices. We also removed the Consent Form and the Baseline form from our modality, causing an overall decrease in completion time and the resulting change in burden.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Addendum.docx
Onsite Audit of sample of case files