EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH

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How Mentally Ill People Get Jobs

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A new $2.8 million, five-year study conducted by a Purdue University professor will compare two starkly different approaches to finding work for millions of Americans with serious mental illness.

About 75 percent of Americans diagnosed with schizophrenia, manic depression and psychotic disorders are unemployed. In 1990, the last year such costs were measured, the government estimates that the total cost of mental illnesses, including days lost from work, was $148 billion.

Purdue psychology professor Gary Bond is tracking the progress of 180 clients at a Chicago psychiatric rehabilitation agency that uses two different approaches to finding work for its clients. The study has been funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Half the job-seekers will enroll in a program that focuses on job training, counseling and work in agency-run businesses to slowly edge them into the competitive workplace. The others will be immersed in a relatively new program called Individual Placement and Support (IPS) developed by Dartmouth Medical School researchers. It emphasizes a rapid job search, intensive counseling and relies heavily on the person's job preference. It emphasizes coordination between medical treatment, job placement and long-term support.

Kennedy said Bond's study might find that both approaches work well, and that there's no ``cookie cutter'' way to find work for people with a serious mental illness. Bond will also examine the comparative costs of the two approaches.

About two-thirds of the people slated to take part in the study have schizophrenia. Bond said many mental health professionals believe people with schizophrenia are either too ill to work, fear full-time jobs or have unrealistic job expectations. Bond disagrees, saying recent studies have shown that two-thirds of people with serious mental illness want to work in competitive jobs and that with counseling and medications that's possible for most.

The study will be conducted at Thresholds Inc., a nonprofit psychiatric rehabilitation center in Chicago. Last year, the center helped about 1000 people land entry-level jobs at warehouses, supermarkets and agency-run businesses.