The university setting is emerging as a viable alternative for people with psychiatric disabilities to pursue their rehabilitation goals. Recent surveys show that despite a strong desire and a documented potential for academic pursuit, persons with a psychiatric disability remain underrepresented in the postsecondary student population. Supported education provides an effective means o f facilitating individuals with psychiatric disabilities to access and pursue educational opportunities. This article describes the Supported Education Program at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. The primary mission o f the program is to assist individuals with psychiatric disabilities to be satisfied and successful in their learning environments o f choice. The choose-getkeep approach developed by Anthony and his colleagues at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation is introduced here to describe the process o f the rehabilitation intervention o f supported education.
Objective: Peer support services for individuals with psychiatric conditions have burgeoned and now are proliferating within mental health systems nationally and internationally. More recently, variations of peer support have been developed, including those that focus on vocational outcomes. Methods: We conducted a randomized clinical trial in two mental health programs to test a newly developed model of vocationally oriented peer support. We recruited, randomly assigned, and followed 166 individuals for 12 months; 83 received Vocational Peer Support (the experimental condition, VPS) and 83 received peer support servicesas-usual. Peer support specialists (PSS) delivering VPS were trained and supervised. We examined vocational and educational outcomes as well as work hope, quality of life, and work readiness at baseline, 6-and 12-month postrandomization. We assessed the working alliance as well. Results: We found a groupby-time effect on domains of work readiness and modest differences in vocational activity. Secondary analyses revealed that VPS resulted in a stronger working alliance with the peer specialist, which mediated some aspects of a better quality of life and greater work hope. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: In the context of the peer relationship, peer specialists are often called upon to support individuals who are pursuing employment, often without adequate preparation or training. Our findings suggest that vocationally oriented peer support affects several aspects of readiness to pursue work-related goals and mediates some aspects of vocational hope and quality of life. VPS may assist individuals receiving peer support as they choose, get, and keep employment. Impact and ImplicationsPeer support is burgeoning nationally but few initiatives are designed to test its role in promoting vocational outcomes. We developed an intervention that would extend the skills and knowledge of trained peer specialists to deliver support to individuals wishing to engage in a process of choosing, getting, or keeping employment. We conducted a randomized trial of Vocational Peer Support and found some evidence for its effectiveness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.