Employment and Mental Health

Abstract

Employment and unemployment have becomemajor topics in mental health care and also in the public discussion. Employment is no longer considered the mere goal of psychiatric rehabilitationbut serves as a rehabilitative measure itself. Supported Employment (SE)according to the principle IndividualPlacement and Support (IPS) has made its way from the United States toEurope in the last decade. The EQOLISE-Trial (Burns et. al. 2007) can be considered theproof of principle of IPS in Europe. Not only had the main outcomecriterion, i.e.employment on the open Job market, successfully been reached. Moreover, it was shown that IPS influences psychopathology, rehospitalisationsand days spent in Hospital in a positive manner. Since then, more randomized controlled trials(RCTs) such as the Placement-Budgets-Trial (ISRCTN89670872), the ZHEPP-trial(ISRCTN54951166) and SE plus (ISRCTN02422335) have been initiated. These RCTscomprise a total of about 500 participants and focus on factors such as thetime needed to find a job, the applicability of IPS on job maintenance and on thepossibility to find a job for persons who receive disability pensions. Secondary outcome criteria are, among others, clinical and social functioning, motivation, and stigma. Data from these trials, from retrospective clinical analysesand from an EQOLISE follow-up at the Zurich site will be presented.