Individual Placement And Support Services Boost Employment For People With Serious Mental Illnesses, But Funding Is Lacking.
The majority of people with serious mental illnesses want to work. Individual placement and support services, an evidence-based supported employment intervention, enables about 60 percent of people with serious mental illnesses who receive the services to gain competitive employment and improve their lives, but the approach does not lead to fewer people on government-funded disability rolls. Yet individual placement and support employment services are still unavailable to a large majority of people with serious mental illnesses in the United States. Disability policies and lack of a simple funding mechanism remain the chief barriers. A recent federal emphasis on early-intervention programs may increase access to employment services for people with early psychosis, but whether these interventions will prevent disability over time is unknown.
Robert E. Drake (Robert.E.Drake@Dartmouth.edu) is a professor of health policy and clinical practice at the Dartmouth Institute, Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth, in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
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Gary R. Bond is a professor of psychiatry at the Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth.
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Bond
Howard H. Goldman is a professor of psychiatry in the Department of Mental Health Policy Studies at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
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Michael F. Hogan is principal at Hogan Health Solutions, in Delmar, New York.
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Mustafa Karakus is a senior health economist at Westat, in Rockville, Maryland.
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D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D016832:Employment, Supported / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States
Mental Health; Supported Employment