Interventions to improve employment outcomes for workers who experience mental illness.

OBJECTIVE

To review employment interventions for individuals who experience mental illness.

METHOD

I reviewed employment interventions described in the mental health, disability, and rehabilitation literature for the period 1990 to 2005 and organized these interventions into a framework.

RESULTS

The framework develops 7 distinct individual-level employment interventions as well as interventions directed at the employer and at workplace organization. It also considers factors that will affect access to these interventions. Although there is a sense of optimism about the potential of these interventions, research in the area is limited.

CONCLUSION

Physicians who are knowledgeable about the nature and scope of employment interventions for individuals with mental illness are in a good position to effect positive change in the work lives of the individuals they serve.