Tracking fixable social needs to target wraparound support for Veterans in treatment courts
Official title: Surveillance of Modifiable Social Determinants of Health for Prioritizing Wraparound Supports
Funded at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital · NIH-11091455 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project tracks changeable needs like housing, jobs, and transportation for Veterans in Veterans Treatment Courts to guide who gets extra wraparound help to stay connected to opioid and mental health care.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Bedford, United States) |
| Project start | July 1, 2024 |
| Project end | June 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| NIH project number | 5I01HX003711-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11091455 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are Veterans enrolled in Veterans Treatment Courts who have co-occurring opioid use disorder and mental health conditions and who report one or more of the identified social needs.
✕Less likely to help
Veterans who are not in Veterans Treatment Courts, who do not have opioid use disorder or co-occurring mental health conditions, or whose problems do not match the eight tracked social needs are less likely to benefit directly from this program.
What this research studies
You would be part of a program that monitors eight changeable social needs — job insecurity, housing insecurity, financial and food insecurity, legal problems, family/social problems, transportation problems, and exposure to violence — that can make it hard to stay in treatment. The team links this surveillance to the MISSION-CJ approach, which offers coordinated psychosocial supports alongside usual Veterans Justice Outreach services. That information is used to prioritize who receives extra wraparound services aimed at keeping people engaged in medications for opioid use disorder and other treatments. The work is done in partnership with local Veterans Treatment Courts and the VA system in order to reach Veterans at greatest risk of overdose or reoffending.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help get the right housing, employment, legal, and transportation supports to Veterans most likely to drop out of opioid and mental health care and reduce overdose and reoffending.
How similar studies have gone: Related programs like MISSION-CJ have shown promise in linking Veterans to services, but using routine surveillance of these eight social needs to prioritize wraparound supports is a newer, less-tested approach.
Where this research is happening
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Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital
Bedford, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Yu, Hong — Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital
- Study coordinator: Yu, Hong
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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Transdiagnostic approach to improve social functioning and relationships for Veterans
A career development grant aims to help a researcher develop a transdiagnostic way to improve how Veterans connect with partners and manage intimate relationships.
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Prioritizing wraparound supports by tracking social determinants of health for Veterans in treatment courts
Aims to identify modifiable social factors that affect Veterans in treatment courts so that tailored supports can prevent relapse, homelessness, and reoffending.
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Clinician-supported mobile app to boost social support for Veterans with PTSD
A clinician-supported mobile app called ACTsocial is tested to help Veterans with PTSD build social connections and reduce isolation.
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Prazosin for Suicide Prevention using Large-Scale Health Data
A large VA-backed study will look at whether the blood pressure medicine prazosin could help prevent suicide and self-harm by analyzing real-world health data.
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Justice-Involved Veterans: Improving Vocational Rehab to Boost Employment
What this grant is doing is studying how veterans who have run-ins with the justice system do in vocational rehabilitation programs, with an eye toward helping them find and keep jobs.
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A brief values-based approach to helping Veterans stay engaged in early buprenorphine treatment
A brief values-based behavioral intervention is being developed to help Veterans with opioid use disorder stay engaged in early buprenorphine treatment and improve everyday functioning.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.