Executive Summary of Findings from the Employment Intervention Demonstration Program

Over the past several decades, research from a variety of fields has presented powerful evidence of the importance of employment to people with psychiatric disabilities. Many people with severe and persistent mental illness not only want to work, but they can also successfully participate in the labor market in a variety of competitive jobs. Researchers also have explored the benefits of work to individuals with mental illness in terms of alleviation of poverty, therapeutic gain, and improvement in quality of life. Society also benefits through reduction in the use of disability entitlements and the overalls cost of care. The Employment Intervention Demonstration Program (EIDP) was designed to generate knowledge about effective approaches for enhancing employment among adults with severe mental illnesses. Eight sites and a Coordinating Center (CC) were funded by the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to conduct this multi-site evaluation of innovative employment intervention programs for adults with psychiatric disabilities. The CC is operated by the Mental Health Services Research Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and what follows is a summary of the EIDP's major findings. Excerpt