About Us
Program Information
The Social and Community Reintegration Research (SoCRR) program is a Rehabilitation Research & Development-funded Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) which brings together a diverse group of VA researchers as a consortium to address the urgent need to build capacity for high quality research in the priority area of community reintegration for Veterans, both with and without psychiatric disabilities. Veterans with psychiatric disabilities are often withdrawn from or are at risk for having difficulty in sustaining community involvement because of the effects of their psychiatric disabilities. Even those Veterans without psychiatric disabilities can have health issues like insomnia, physical symptoms, or family issues that can make it more difficult to be engaged in civic and community activities. SoCRR investigators conduct research and train post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty investigators to address community reintegration needs for Veterans.
The research is organized by two important research focus areas: 1) Interventions to Enhance Education/Employment and 2) Interventions to Enhance Family and Social Functioning. SoCCR's focus on critical areas of community reintegration, including employment, education, and interpersonal relationships, converge on the central mission of helping Veterans to become more engaged in the community, including helping them to find and utilize services that can encourage greater social and community engagement (e.g., improving educational or employment outcomes, enhancing family and other social relationships, enhancing the use of social support). Furthermore, SoCCR investigators will also focus on finding novel ways of measuring the multifaceted concept of community reintegration. . The center is based at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital (Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA) in Bedford, Massachusetts, which has a rich continuum of clinical programming that will serve both as a setting for SoCRR studies, and also a source of ideas and information to ensure the research is practical, transferable, and centered on Veterans' needs and interests. Overall, SoCCR serves the emerging focus of VA clinical programming that fosters recovery and community reintegration for Veterans with and without psychiatric disabilities.
Leadership
Director: Charles Drebing, Ph.D.
Associate Directors: Marsha Ellison, Ph.D. and Megan Kelly, Ph.D.
For information, contact VHABEDSOCRRadmin@va.gov
