A Supported Employment Program for People with Mental Illness in Hong Kong

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to report on the vocational outcomes of people with mental illness participating in a supported employment (SE) program in Hong Kong. A total of 748 participants were enrolled in the present program which was developed on the basis of the Job Coach Model ( Wehman, 1986 Wehman, P. 1986. Supported competitive employment for persons with severe disabilities. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, 17: 24–29. [Google Scholar] ) and the principles of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Model ( Becker & Drake, 1994 Drake, R. E. , Becker, D. R. , Biesanz, J. C. , Torrey, W. C. , McHugo, G. J. and Wyzik, P. F. 1994. Rehabilitation day treatment vs. supported employment: I. Vocational outcomes. Community Mental Health Journal, 30: 519–532. [Google Scholar] ). Of the 748 participants, 458 (61.2%) obtained competitive employment. The mean job tenure was 151 days. The mean salary was HK$4,561 (US$585.00) for full-time jobs and $2,368 (US$304.00) for part-time jobs. The majority of participants (62.4%) could sustain their job placement for more than 30 days, 110 (24.0%) participants could work for more than six months, and 59 (12.9%) could maintain their jobs for more than one year. Participants who became employed were compared to those who did not gain employment on a variety of demographic variables. Significant differences were found between two groups in the aspects of gender and education background. The rate of employment in the current study was slightly higher, but the job retention rate was lower than that in the earlier studies. Economic conditions were found to have a remarkable influence on employment rates for the present SE program. This study concluded that individualized SE programs could be an effective approach to enhance vocational outcomes for people with mental illness in Hong Kong. Recommendations for future research on evaluation of the effectiveness of SE program and for further development of SE in Hong Kong were suggested.