Our findings provide pertinent information for vocational rehabilitation services, recovery programs, and even parents on the importance of connecting young adults to jobs that enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy and are in line with their personal interests. Future research is needed to understand potential cultural and age differences in the meaning of work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

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Programs that serve transition-age youth with serious mental health conditions typically reside in either the child or the adult system. Good service provision calls for interactions among these programs. The objective of this research was to discover programmatic characteristics that facilitate or impede collaboration with programs serving dissimilar age groups, among programs that serve transition-age youth. To examine this "cross-age collaboration," this research used social network analysis methods to generate homophily and heterophily scores in three communities that had received federal grants to improve services for this population. Heterophily scores (i.e., a measure of cross-age collaboration) in programs serving only transition-age youth were significantly higher than the heterophily scores of programs that served only adults or only children. Few other program markers or malleable program factors predicted heterophily. Programs that specialize in serving transition-age youth are a good resource for gaining knowledge of how to bridge adult and child programs.

Objective: This study can inform psychiatric rehabilitation practice by describing the patterns of education, training, and employment activities among young adults with serious mental health conditions and identify potentially malleable factors that hinder or facilitate their ability to continuously pursue these activities. Methods: One-time, in-person interviews were conducted with 55 young adults, ages 25-30, with serious mental health conditions in Massachusetts. The life story interview script asked participants about key life and mental health experiences and details about their education, training, and employment experiences. Results: Young adult paths' through post-secondary school, training, and work were often non-linear and included multiple starts and stops. Many young adults reported unsteady and inconsistent patterns of school and work engagement and only half were meaningfully engaged in education, employment, or training at the time of the interview. Employment often included service industry jobs with short tenures and most who had attempted post-secondary college had not obtained a degree. Barriers to continuous pursuit of school, training, or work included stress-induced anxiety or panic, increased symptomatology related to their mental health condition, and interpersonal conflicts. Flexible school, training, and work environments with supportive supervisors helped facilitate the continuous pursuit of these activities. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Psychiatric rehabilitation professionals need to help young adults with serious mental health conditions manage stress and anxiety and periods of increased symptomatology, navigate interpersonal challenges, and advocate for flexible and supportive accommodations. Early and blended education and employment supports would also be beneficial. Impact and ImplicationsYoung adults with serious mental health conditions (SMHC) navigate erratic patterns of school, training, and work with frequent disruptions most often caused by stress-induced anxiety or panic, increased symptomatology, and interpersonal conflicts. Conversely, flexible environments and supportive supervisors facilitate the continuous pursuit of these activities. These results fill a critical knowledge gap that can inform the design and delivery of more effective psychiatric rehabilitation supports to young adults with SMHC.

For early emerging adults with serious mental health conditions, vocational services with peer mentors are a promising adaptation of adult system evidence-based practices. Peer mentors were added to the Individual Placement and Support model of supported employment for 17- to 20-year-olds receiving residential and psychiatric care. To explore the feasibility of vocational peer mentors, open-ended satisfaction surveys and the Working Alliance Inventory were administered to mentees at 12 months. Thematic analysis of surveys reveals the importance of peer mentor authenticity, flexibility, and being a graduate of the mental health program where vocational services were based. Valued relational processes include the act of talking in the community, feeling understood, and forming a bond with peer mentors. Mentees with positive peer mentoring experiences reported stronger working alliances. This study sheds light onto near-age mentoring relational processes for this population, which can inform future research of mentoring processes and intervention design.

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College students with mental health conditions struggle to succeed academically potentially limiting their future. Previous research has shown that college students of all ages with mental health conditions under-utilize academic supports. However traditional (i.e. young adult) and non-traditional (i.e. older adult) students have different academic learning experiences and may also have different academic support experiences. This research explored the academic support experiences of young adult college students with mental health conditions and compared them to those of older adult college students with mental health conditions. A secondary analysis of a previously collected dataset on the academic experiences of college students with mental health conditions was conducted. The sample was limited to only current students at time of survey and respondents were categorized as either young adult (ages 18-24) or older adult (age 25 and over). Descriptive and exploratory quantitative analysis compared their mental health experiences, utilization of academic supports, and engagement on campus. Young adults were less likely to access formal disability services, less satisfied in their college experience and reported lower quality relationships with staff and faculty as compared to their older peers. Further investigation of the many potential reasons for these differences is warranted. As college student bodies become more diversified, staff and faculty need to recognize that student capacities and experience vary not just due to the potential impact of gender, race, or class, but also due to age and life experiences.