An update on supported employment for people with severe mental illness

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an effective intervention for helping people with severe mental illness obtain competitive employment, yet it has not been widely implemented. This review will examine and summarize the latest research on IPS.

As the effectiveness of IPS has been well established in the literature, newer research is exploring nonvocational outcomes, such as quality of life and mental health services utilization and expanding the reach of IPS to include different countries and different population groups. There is also a growing literature exploring the cost-effectiveness of IPS compared with traditional vocational services, which has favored IPS. By far, the area of research that has expanded the most is aimed at enhancing IPS outcomes, at both the intervention level and the client level. Researchers are exploring the variance in IPS outcomes as a means of increasing competitive employment rates with IPS.

Although the field of research continues to expand, it is clear that many barriers remain to broad implementation of IPS. The solution goes beyond further research and involves policies and practices that support a recovery oriented mental healthcare system.