title: "Coffee Stands": a vocational rehabilitation project in the community for people coping with mental disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The "Coffee Stands" project was developed to provide a work place where individuals with long term mental illness can receive job training within the community. It is similar to a supported employment program, except that it does not provide individual job placement services. The objective of the study was to describe the participants who worked at the "coffee stands", with respect to their participation in occupations, functional cognition, executive functions and awareness, perception of their quality of life (QoL), satisfaction and self esteem. Moreover, the study aimed at examining whether changes occurred in these variables during the 6-month period in which participants worked at the coffee stands.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 44 people with chronic mental illness; 27 men and 17 women, mean age 43.43 (SD = 9.02); mean years of education 11.81 (SD = 1.83); mean age of illness onset 27.72 (SD = 11.12) and mean number of hospitalizations 3.27 (SD = 2.64). All signed an informed consent to participate in the study. A battery of eight instruments measuring the various variables was administered at two points in time; at the beginning of the work at the coffee stands and 6 months later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Indicated that the training was successful and that participants were able to maintain an average 3 hours of work daily, demonstrating an improvement in their perception of their ability to work. In the area of planning, they needed structure, suggesting some difficulties in executive functions, but they seemed to be aware of their difficulties. After 6 months, participants showed improvements in health related measures of QoL and satisfaction, but not in self esteem.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings strengthen the premise that people coping with an emotional disorder place great importance on working, are able to work and derive satisfaction from their work.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Health and Medical Professions, Ono Academic College, Or-Yehuda, Israel. noomi.katz@ono.ac.il
authors.forename: Noomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Smadar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gilad Izhaky
authors.forename: Ornit
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ziv
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Revach
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003069:Coffee / Q000191:economics; D016832:Employment, Supported / Q000379:methods*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee