Overview
The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effectiveness of a peer-facilitated travel intervention in adults with serious mental illnesses. This project aims to address the following hypotheses:
- Individuals with SMI receiving either of the two peer-mediated travel training transportation interventions will experience an increase in transportation self-efficacy and transportation skills.
- Participants in the intervention arms will increase their transport utilization, participate in significantly more activities in the community, and make significantly more trips in the community.
- Individuals with SMI receiving peer-mediated travel training interventions will retain post-test levels of community participation and self-efficacy 2 months after intervention.
Participants will be assigned to an 8-week travel-training intervention either using a bike-share program or public transportation. All participants will complete three data-collection research interviews.
Description
This project proposes using a two-armed, waitlist controlled trial to test the effectiveness of peer-facilitated travel interventions and their ability to enhance community mobility and increase feelings of self-efficacy in individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). The first intervention arm is an 8-week bikeshare intervention, which consists of individual trainings on using a bike sharing program; the second intervention arm is an 8-week public transportation intervention, which consists of individual trainings for using public transportation in the Philadelphia area. The investigators seek to enroll a total of 180 individuals from community mental health agencies in the Philadelphia area and expect recruitment to take 3 years. Eligible participants will be individuals who meet criteria indicating that they have an SMI, are between the ages of 18-65, and are both willing and able to learn to use public transportation and ride a bicycle. Data will be collected via face-to-face or web-based video call interviews at 3 time points: baseline, 2-months post-baseline, and 4-months post-baseline. Participants will also complete short surveys about their travel behaviors over the phone in the seven days after each interview. There will also be a subsample of participants who will provide additional GPS data.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- are between the ages of 18 and 65
- are diagnosed with a SMI (confirmed via the MINI)
- score at least an 8 on a travel skills assessment
- indicates that they can ride a bicycle
- have expressed interest in using a bikeshare and public transportation
- are able to provide informed consent
Exclusion Criteria:
- score less than 8 on a travel skills assessment
- express no interest in independent transportation
- are non-English speaking individuals
- are unable to provide consent
- are living in a setting where mobility and participation is restricted
- have a limiting physical condition that would prevent their ability to ride a bicycle independently