Perceived and actual barriers to work for people with mental illness

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Unemployment is high among people with severe mental illness and often hinders community integration. OBJECTIVES: To inform the effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation programs, our study examined whether self-perceived barriers to work differ among clinical and demographic subgroups of people with mental illness, and whether self-perceived barriers to work, clinical and demographic factors are related to employment outcomes. METHODS: Multivariate regression analyses were conducted on self-perceived barriers to work, clinical and demographic factors of N = 279 people with mental illness who presented to Career Management Service. RESULTS: Older as opposed to younger participants were less likely to obtain competitive employment. Being of an ethnic minority group increased the likelihood of entering education/training but made it less likely to enter non-competitive employment, while no difference was found for obtaining competitive employment. A trend was found for people with schizophrenia versus those with a different diagnosis to be more likely to enter education/training and non-competitive employment. Except for health problems and social/structural disadvantages, self-perceived barriers to work were not related to actual employment outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that vocational rehabilitation for people with mental illness does not occur in isolation but is influenced by factors beyond clinical impairment which generally affect the labor market.

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