Job acquisition for people with severe mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) is still difficult and complex, yet it is considered by many rehabilitation specialists to be a key component in the recovery and rehabilitation of this clientele. Several authors have presented a comprehensive list of barriers or facilitators for people with mental disorders to explain their work integration, including not only individual or internal characteristics, but also programmatic characteristics.
Obtaining a job involves multiple planning and decision-making processes. These processes can be experienced as especially challenging for people with mental illness who might feel overwhelmed by the barriers to overcome and, consequently, feel less confident in their ability to meet their occupational goals. New initiatives designed to help diminish the stigma towards people with mental disorders are currently being studied, and evidence-based practices in vocational services, such as supported employment programs, have already been demonstrated and are currently being implemented in various countries.
This presentation has two main goals:
- to comprehensively portray the underlying relationships between the personal concepts that explain the work integration of people with severe mental disorders and, thus, evaluate the strength of variance explained by each concept analyzed in the model (the theory of planned behaviour and self-efficacy theory)
- to evaluate the salient components in supported employment programs according to perspectives from employment specialists and clients.
