1 Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH), Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
2 Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2017 Nov;63(7):632-640. doi: 10.1177/0020764017725769. Epub 2017 Aug 11.
Persons with serious mental illnesses (SMI) can lead productive lives, and the majority want to work. Mental health providers can play an important role in helping their clients gain and maintain employment.
The Provider Survey was developed to shed additional light on providers' views toward employment and recovery, and the utilization of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) supported employment (SE) services for people with SMI.
A total of 1,306 providers of the State of Connecticut participated in the survey. Four main questions were addressed in the survey: what do providers do, what do they view as most important regarding employment, what are their views when it comes to what promotes recovery and what barriers do providers face in attempting to refer their clients to IPS services.
Referring clients to additional supports was rated as the most important aspect of what providers do; encouragement was rated as the most important component to enable clients in gaining and maintaining employment; agency, belonging and medical care were rated as most important in promoting recovery; and expectations that clients would be discriminated against at work was the most important barrier to referring clients for SE. Also, employment and finances were seen as the least important factors in promoting the recovery of people with SMI.
This survey suggests that one reason that more clients may not be referred to IPS programs is that clinicians do not view employment or financial self-sufficiency as important factors in recovery, further compounding the historical view that these persons are unable to, and uninterested in, working. Such findings call for a provider education and training campaign to highlight the fact that most persons with SMI - like most persons in general - do want to work and, with supports, most are capable of doing so.
患有严重精神疾病（SMI）的人可以过上富有成效的生活，大多数人都想工作。精神健康服务提供者可以在帮助客户获得和维持就业方面发挥重要作用。
开展提供者调查是为了进一步了解提供者对就业和康复的看法，以及为患有 SMI 的人提供个体安置和支持（IPS）支持性就业（SE）服务的利用情况。
康涅狄格州的 1306 名提供者参与了这项调查。调查中提出了四个主要问题：提供者做什么，他们认为就业最重要的是什么，他们对促进康复的看法，以及提供者在试图将客户转介到 IPS 服务时面临的障碍。
将客户转介到其他支持服务被评为提供者最重要的工作方面；鼓励被评为帮助客户获得和维持就业的最重要组成部分；机构、归属感和医疗保健被评为促进康复最重要的因素；而客户在工作中会受到歧视的期望则是转介客户进行 SE 的最重要障碍。此外，就业和财务被视为促进 SMI 患者康复的最不重要因素。
这项调查表明，更多的客户可能没有被转介到 IPS 项目的一个原因是临床医生不认为就业或财务自给自足是康复的重要因素，这进一步加剧了历史上认为这些人无法工作或对工作不感兴趣的观点。这些发现呼吁开展提供者教育和培训活动，强调大多数患有 SMI 的人——就像大多数普通人一样——确实希望工作，并且在支持下，大多数人都有能力工作。
