Traditional approaches to vocational rehabilitation, such as skills training classes, job clubs, and sheltered employment, have not been successful in helping people with severe mental illness gain competitive employment. Supported employment, in which clients are placed in jobs and then trained by on-site coaches, is a radically new conceptual approach to vocational rehabilitation designed for people with developmental disabilities. The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) method utilizes the supported employment concept, but modifies it for use with the severely mentally ill. It is the only approach that has a strong empirical research base: rates of competitive employment are 40% or more in IPS programs, compared to 15% in traditional mental health programs. The third volume in the Innovations in Practice and Service Delivery with Vulnerable Populations series, this will be extremely useful to students in psychiatric rehabilitation programs and social work classes dealing with the severely mentally ill, as well as to practitioners in the field.

Employment is the highest priority for many people with severe mental illness and it is a central aspect of recovery. Over the past two decades, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment has emerged as the prominent evidence-based approach to vocational rehabilitation. This comprehensive monograph synthesizes the research and experience on IPS supported employment: historical context, core principles, effectiveness, long-term outcomes, non-vocational outcomes, cost-effectiveness, generalizability, fidelity, implementation, policy, and future research. A collaboration of the top researchers in the area, this book will have broad appeal to professionals and researchers working with populations with psychiatric disabilities and in community mental health and social service settings. In tracing the evolution of IPS, readers are equipped with an elegant example of the transition from needs assessment, to model development, to testing, and to dissemination.