Peer Facilitated Waitlist Controlled Transportation Study

Summary

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: 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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.

Detailed 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 Criteria

Interventions