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NCT Number: NCT06257095

Improving Adult Protective Services Client Outcomes: A Stepped-Care Social and Mental Health Engagement Program

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the feasibility and effectiveness of an 8-week social engagement program aimed at reducing depression and increasing social engagement among seniors who are transitioning out of Adult Protective Services (APS) for either elder abuse or self-neglect.

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Key information

Conditions

Depression in Old Age

Age range

65 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

Older Adults

  • an APS validated EM/SN case
  • able to provide informed consent
  • able to speaks English or Spanish
  • able to hear sufficiently using the telephone
  • transitioning out of APS intervention (i.e. in the case closure phase of the APS service).

Student

  • college or university student
  • enrolled in a health-related program
  • commit to making 8-weekly consecutive calls
  • complete the required 1-hour training and assessment.

Exclusion criteria

Older Adults

  • Individuals needing a proxy to consent
  • suspected or confirmed decision-making capacity impairments or uncontrolled psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, paranoia, delusion, or delirium

Student

-only engaging in the program to fulfill some educational requirement

Treatment and study plan

Stepped-care social and mental health engagement

Behavioral

Each student will be matched to an older adult and the students will make one call o the older adult which lasts upto 1 hour each week for 8 weeks. Ending each call, the student will assess symptoms of depression anxiety through questionnaires. If the participant responds yes on two consecutive calls to any of these questions, they will be asked if they would like to receive a call from the University of Texas Health Science Center Trauma and Resilience Center to discuss free counseling services.

APS Usual care

Behavioral

Participants will receive a phone call for data collection. Then they will be offered to receive an abbreviated version of the stepped-care social and mental health engagement intervention, lasting only 6-weeks with the option to continue calls if agreeable between the student and older adult.

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in social isolation assessed by the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI-6)

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 6-item questionnaire and each is measured from 1(hardly ever) to 3(most of the time) for a maximum score of 18, higher score indicating greater social support

  2. Change in loneliness as assessed by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA )loneliness scale

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 20-item questionnaire , each item is rated as either O ("I often feel this way"), S ("I sometimes feel this way"), R ("I rarely feel this way"), N ("I never feel this way") for a score range of 0-3,for a maximum score of 60, higher score indicating worse outcome

  3. Change in depression as assessed by the PATIENT HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE (PHQ-9)

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 9 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day) , for a maximum score of 27 , higher score indicating more depression

  4. Recurrence of Elder mistreatment (EM)

    Time frame: From participant's first call to 1 month post final call

    This is a yes or no questionnaire that will be answered by adult protective services (APS)

  5. Recurrence of self neglect (SN)

    Time frame: From participant's first call to 1 month post final call

    This is a yes or no questionnaire that will be answered by adult protective services (APS)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in anxiety as assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7)

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 7-item questionnaire , each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day), for a score range of 0-21 higher score indicating more anxiety

  2. Change in resilience as assessed by the Brief Resilience Scale

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 6-item questionnaire, questions 1, and 5 are scored from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) and questions 2, 4 and 6 are reverse scored , for a score range of 6-30. The total score is then divided by the number of questions answered to get the final score. higher score indicating more resilience.

  3. Change in Anxiety as Assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-Item Scale (GAD-2)

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 2 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3( nearly every day).Total scores range from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety symptom severity. A score of ≥3 is considered a positive screen for clinically significant anxiety.

  4. Change in Depressive Symptoms as Assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2)

    Time frame: baseline, 4-week and 8-week follow-up

    This is a 2 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day) for a total score range of 0-6,higher scores indicate greater depressive symptom severity

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Jason Burnett, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

(713) 873-4685

Jordan Broussard, MS

CONTACT

[email protected]

713 500 0321

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Other

Collaborators

  • Department of Health and Human Services

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2023
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Feb 13, 2024
Registry last updated
Jun 3, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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