Effectiveness of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Approaches for Employment of People with Severe Mental Illness

Abstract

The authors review studies of (a) traditional psychiatric rehabilitation (including clubhouse programs and approaches offering an array of employment options) and (b) supported employment approaches for helping people with severe mental illness gain and maintain competitive employment. Based on the results of this review, the authors conclude that the effectiveness of traditional psychiatric rehabilitation in helping people gain competitive employment cannot be conclusively determined at this point. On the other hand, research on the effectiveness of supported employment was consistently positive.The authors recommend that further research be conducted on model definition, intermediate vocational options, interaction between client characteristics and program models, and long-term outcomes.In this report we review the current data regarding the effectiveness of psychiatric rehabilitation approaches for helping people with severe mental illness (SMI) achieve competitive employment. The term psychiatric rehabilitation (also referred to as psychosocial rehabilitation) has been used in many different,

Worker Perspectives on Contemporary Milieu Therapy: A Cross-Site Ethnographic Study

“…The belief that MT provided needed scaffolding for developing skills for successful living in "natural" communities suggests that workers saw the milieu as a temporary but necessary step toward independent living. Contrary to critics who have charged that institutional care, residential treatment, and center-based "clubhouse" programs deprive service users of opportunities to function in the wider community ( Barth, 2005;Bond, Drake, Becker, & Mueser, 1999), these workers viewed MT as preparing clients for just such community integration.…”

Critical Issues for Parents with Mental Illness and their Families

“…Employers may be unwilling to hire persons with mental illness because of the stigma attached, often regardless of a person's ability to do the work required. Individuals with mental illness may need long-term support with all aspects of employment, including career planning, job negotiations, and learning new skills (Bond, Drake, Becker & Mueser, 1999). Finding and affording childcare are major stressors for all mothers, and are additional stressors for women juggling the multiple demands of parenthood and living with mental illness.…”

Health and well-being of homeless veterans participating in transitional and supported employment: Six-month outcomes

“…Diverse approaches have been used to facilitate employment for individuals diagnosed with SMI, including sheltered workshops, skills training, clubhouses, and supported employment (SE) [4]. Some of these programs specifically seek to foster competitive employment (CE) (i.e., jobs in the competitive economy that are open to all workers and pay standard wages) and some seek non-CE (i.e., protected jobs that are "owned" by programs that set their own, often reduced, wages and may be less demanding and more acceptable to clients) [5][6][7].…”