title: Sheltered Employment Centers: Characteristics and users' perception.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To know the situation of Sheltered Employment Centers (CEE) in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
  
  
  METHODS
  A quantitative approach was developed by using a questionnaire which was sent to all the CEE. With this questionnaire we got information about the performance level of CEE. A qualitative approach was developed too by using an interview applied to a representative sample of users. With the interview we got information about users' perception and satisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  73 centers from 175 (41.71%) participated in the quantitative approach. For the qualitative approach, 60 workers were selected from 1,899 (3.16%) in a randomized and stratified sample by age and gender.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Users of CEE have most of them physical (38.41%) or intellectual (26.88%) disabilities, between 25 and 44 years old (65.44%) with permanent and full-time contract (64.17%). Satisfaction is very high (93.33%), mainly with the task (41.76%) and their coworkers (30.00%), and emphasizing that money is the least attractive feature (35.59%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CEE need to give careful thought to some of the key aspects of their makeup and practices. We would point out the need to make clear use of the personal and social adaptation services, act as routes for the transition to normalized employment.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Universitario de Integración en la Comunidad INICO, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. bjordan@usal.es
authors.forename: F B Jordán
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: de Urríes
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Verdugo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012759:Sheltered Workshops / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult