“It suits my needs”: Self-employed individuals with psychiatric disabilities and small businesses.

Abstract

Objective: Small business is a favorably regarded institution in America. Given employment disparities among individuals with psychiatric disabilities compared to other workers, self-employment has potential to promote career development and community integration. However, little is known about what has helped or hindered current small business owners with psychiatric disabilities. This exploratory study identified characteristics of individuals' work and disability histories, as well as business characteristics, that can inform policy and practice development in support of disability-owned small businesses. Method: A nonprobability sample of 60 U.S. adults with a history of psychiatric disability who were self-employed in 2017 completed a web-based survey that asked about demographics, experiences of disability, motivations for self-employment, and business characteristics. Results: Most survey respondents were operating new, very small, unincorporated home-based service businesses on a part-time basis. Respondents were educated, typically with extensive work histories, but had experienced discrimination and unpleasant attitudes from coworkers and supervisors. Responses highlighted the importance of freedom and work-life balance. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Self-employment is not necessarily a fit for everyone, but for individuals with psychiatric disabilities, it may be a pathway back to work. The size of the respondent businesses and the part-time nature of the work suggests that individuals with psychiatric disabilities are operating very small businesses that may serve as a wage employment alternative if they are able to grow in the future, or be sustained as a part-time adjunct to public benefits or other paid or unpaid work. Impact and ImplicationsSelf-employment is one strategy to improve employment and financial outcomes for individuals with psychiatric disabilities while also promoting community inclusion. This research is an important first step in exploring self-employment among people with psychiatric disabilities so that others can learn about how it works. It shows that some self-employed individuals with psychiatric disabilities are running very small businesses part time, supplementing their income. They have had negative experiences in the workplace and have chosen self-employment seeking freedom, flexibility, and work-life balance.

Motives for entrepreneurship and establishing one’s own business among people with disabilities: Findings from a scoping review

“…However, some groups are more vulnerable than others, both in the labour market and socially. People with mental illness are the group with the highest unemployment, and as many in this group have experienced discrimination, this is a common motive among them for starting their own business (Ostrow et al 2019).…”

“…This review has shown that avoiding discrimination is another motive for starting one's own business. Discrimination is accounted for either by analysing statistics on participants in the labour force collected via labour market surveys (Gouskova 2020;Jones and Latreille 2011), or empirically by noting individuals' experiences of discriminating employers, colleagues, and clients (Maritz and Laferriere 2016;Ostrow et al 2019;Quinton 2014). However, few studies have tested the role of discrimination in their research questions.…”

“…In their article, Ostrow et al (2019) make a conceptual distinction between motives that are to be understood as an expression of a desire for autonomy and those that concern flexibility. Autonomy was less often a motive than flexibility was.…”

Effects of Psychotic Symptoms and Social Cognition on Job Retention in Patients with Schizophrenia in Korea

“…Most people with schizophrenia have unskilled jobs, such as laboring, manufacturing, or sales/service. Although this may be due to social bias, it also appears to be a result of the disorder becoming chronic, in addition to schizophrenia's characteristic symptoms [44].…”

Disability Inclusive Employment and the Accommodation Principle: Emerging Issues in Research, Policy, and Law

“…The articles address traditional employer-employee relationships as well as the relationships developed when people with disabilities choose to create and manage flexible work arrangements that they own and operate, as self-and independent contractors do. The flexibility of such arrangements is one reason that a relatively high proportion of people with disabilities engage in self-employment and independent contracting relationships in the new "gig" economy rather than pursuing (or continuing to pursue) traditional employment [27,28].…”