Evidence for Supported Employment (SE)

• 5 day treatment conversion studies
• 9 controlled trials comparing supported employment to other approaches
• various studies examining SE to other traditional approaches

Transcript

The evidence for the effectiveness of supported employment comes from 5 studies examining conversion of day treatment to supported employment, 9 randomized controlled trials comparing supported employment to other traditional vocational approaches, and various studies examining specific ingredients of supported employment. The findings have been very consistent across these studies, which have been conducted throughout the United State in states such as New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland, Indiana, New York, South Carolina, California, and Rhode Island. Studies have also been conducted in large cities to include Washington, DC, Baltimore, Hartford, Indianapolis, as well as in rural communities in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Vermont. In addition, these studies have been conducted with different populations to include individuals who are Caucasian, African American and Latino.

The day treatment programs studied have replaced day treatment services with supported employment programs, reassigning staff to other duties within the centers. Typically, the organizational change met with initial resistance, eventually changing to wide scale acceptance among staff, consumer, and family members. The conversions have led to higher employment rates and no measurable negative outcomes such as individual relapses. The conversions have also led to cost savings. In addition, the 9 randomized controlled trials have shown far better competitive employment rates for supported employment that are double or triple the rate for comparison groups receiving a variety of vocational services, including a number of very well-regarded vocational programs. These findings will be explained in more detail in the next slide.