Important Findings to Remember

The more vocational services people receive, the better the employment outcomes they achieve.

Over time, more people work, their jobs last longer and longer, and the time between jobs grows shorter and shorter.

Consumers demonstrated a huge productivity potential by earning millions of dollars and working hundreds of thousands of hours.

Transcript

In closing, there are several important findings so far in the EIDP. First of all, the more vocational services people receive, the better the employment outcomes they achieve. That’s why it’s very important for programs to monitor the amount of vocational services they deliver and continue to serve consumers who want and need services with no time limits, even after clients are working successfully.

Over time, more people work, their jobs last longer, and the time between jobs grows shorter. In other words, people’s employment success increases over time, making it important that programs be prepared to offer ongoing support and services that build on career achievements. This involves programs being prepared to offer supported educational services, so that consumers can enhance their levels of education and obtain better and better jobs. It also means that providers need to understand that career success can lead to a need for additional, higher-level career enhancement services.

Mental health consumers have a huge productivity potential as shown by the fact that participants in this study earned millions of dollars and worked hundreds of thousands of hours. We hear a lot of concern about the health of our economy today. We know that there are labor shortages in certain industries such as the service industries, communications industries, and technology industries. We cannot afford to ignore the significant contributions that people with psychiatric disabilities can make to our economy and to the diversity of our labor force.