Needs and impact of supported employment for young adults recovering from emerging mental illness: A naturalistic study.
Poster C44, Wednesday, October%2010, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
AIKATERINI NTELI1, VERENA MARINI1, MANUEL TETTAMANTI1, LOGOS CURTIS1; 1Geneva University Hospitals
Social inclusion is a basis for recovery for individuals suffering from mental illness (Davidson et al., 2001). Individual Placement and Support for employment, is a recommended psychosocial treatment for individuals with mental illness wishing to work (Dixon et al., 2010). It has also shown benefit for support to training and education for young adults after a first episode of psychosis (Rinaldi et al., 2010). This naturalistic observational study sought to follow and measure, over a period of 24 months, supported employment interventions among 53 (69%male) outpatient individuals treated in the Young Adult Psychiatry Unit of the Geneva University Hospitals. The mean age was 21.3 years (sd=2.5) and the mean level of education was 13.3 years (sd=1.8). Each individual benefited from the support of both the mental health team, as well as a coach providing IPS structured support for training, education and/or work. Coaching interventions were evaluated, as well as coaching related activities attained by each individual. These were related to clinical data including global diagnostic categories, overall improvement and types of interventions necessary. As in other studies, our results suggest a beneficial impact of coaching for attaining training, education and/or work. More specifically, results showed that individuals with more advanced stages of mental illness received more intensive coaching. Moreover, preliminary correlation analysis showed that intensity of coaching was related to the rate of activity.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions