Value of Psychiatric Rehabilitation in Employment in Australia - Essay Example

Value Of Psychiatric Rehabilitation In Helping People Gain And Maintain Employment In Australia Name of Student Institution affiliation Abstract Individuals with severe mental illness have their workforce participation minimum which translates to a significant social and economic disadvantage. This research outlines the strategies that have been put in place to address this matter. These matters are Individuals Placement and support services which are the most broadly research subject on supported employment in which cognitive solution has been mostly accepted in the United States. This has been the intervention put in place so as to improve employment results by addressing the cognitive impairments the people with severe mental health experience. This discussion is based in Australia. Australia is in the best position to converge clients in such an intervention since it had succeeded recently in the increased support of workforce reentry and employment programs. Australia achieved this by implementation of HOPE (health optimization program for employment). This program is one of those that help in maintaining and gaining employment. In contrary, these programs do not outline the cognitive issues and frequently prevent individuals with severe mental illness from effectively and actively taking part in work. This in turn alleviates the present interventions with cognitive skills that are work-focused that are vital in the enhancement of the low employment rates for the individuals with severe mental illness. Value Of Psychiatric Rehabilitation In Helping People Gain And Maintain Employment In Australia Health is a state of normal functionality that can be disrupted by disease from time to time. It a condition characterized psychological, anatomic and physiologic integrity which gives the ability to perform personal valued community work, family roles and the ability to comfortably handle social, physical, biological, and physiological stress. The definition of health has evolved over the years and there are three main approaches used to define it namely: the “medical model”, the “wellness model” and the holistic model (Du, 2012). High rate of unemployment for the severe mental illness people has emerged to an area of much concern in the public policy and mental health sectors. Various researches carried out have revealed that employment status is correlated highly with the economic, social, health and the general quality of life. In a personal view, employment creates and alleviates self-esteem, sense of purpose, independence and a big satisfaction in terms of finances. It offers a daily routine personal achievement and social involvement and gives an opportunity for an individual to feel important among others in the society. Likewise, employment levels have also been linked withdecreased exacerbation risks of psychiatric signs and symptoms and rare on frequent abuse of substances. This therefore makes the individuals with severe mental illness to have an urge to work and take it a vital aspect of life (Beswetherick,2012). It is estimate that in Australia, the people with severe mental illness nonparticipation in the workforce is 70-78 %, with the majority having an access to vocational rehabilitation program or support to gain employment and most importantly maintain the employment (Bond et al., 2008).A major concern is that the rate of employment for the people with severe mental health has remain constant despite the low rates of national employment and the sustained policy for the promotion of work opportunities for these group off individuals. Many life aspects are usually subject to income and the relationships that are maintained by a paying employment. Lack of work has been found to have negative impacts to people’s health, sense of worth, social inclusion, civil participation and daily routines. Prolonged unemployment translates to worsening of constants that are brought about by isolation, lees identity respect and poverty. Despite the presenceof some of the programs that support employment, more research has to be done to boost their efficacy (Wielandt, 2011). Switch from prevocational training to individual placement and support approach Since time in memorial, prevocational training, supported employment programs and transitional employment, have been the major approaches that have been used to help people with severe mentalillness go back to work. The aim of prevocational training programs, traditionally, was to client in activities related to work with an assumption that preparation and training were the stepping stone to acquiring a permanent and a paying job. This model assumed that these people needed training even in ales demanding and supervised work environments before they could attempt a paying job (Boles &Winsor). In 1950’s a group of social work volunteers and clientsconverged outside a mental hospital’s ward bin order to have a support socially, in activities and to introduce patients to vocational environments. Just like other prevocational trainings, “clubhouse model” relied on the principle that all they individuals with severe mental illness had the ability of doing work-related requirements by alleviating their autonomy around an integrated environment (Ngwena, 2005). The clients were urged to participate in the two arms of preparation. the first one called a prevocational “work ordered day” entailed helping in the daily activities such as paying visits to patients in the hospital, welcoming others and doing kitchen duties and above all working in collaboration with the members of staff to take the mandate of maintain the clubhouse. The second d phase was “transitional employment program”. This program provided the clients with time-limited and part-time jobs under supervision and at a minimum salary. The major goal of this program was to introduce the clients in the working environment and develop the required job skill prior to entering a competitive job market (Bond et al., 2008). Another evidence based practice (EBP) is the “Supported Employment” which was adopted as an alternative model of increasing the number of people with severe mental illness in the work places. Supported employment fosters to help the clients enter the completive workforce while operating as part of mental health service or as a standalone agency. Globally, support employment stands in other forms like IPS (Individual Placement and Support) service that open employment opportunities for others. Of all these approaches, IPS is the extensively researched and it has shown superior job outcomes when compared to other approaches (Pack, 2015). This approach was developed in 1990’S by Deborah Drake and Robert Becker and was based on the following seven principles namely: rapid job search, clients’ preference attention, personalized benefit counseling, eligibility depends on the clients choice, employment services and mental health integration and supported employment services that fosters on assisting clients to get competitive jobs. The Fidelity Scale for IPS was established to make sure that these principles and procedures were applied with reliability and precision in a variety of sites. The inclusion of quality control and fidelity to IPS is found to be of importance to vocational outcomes and increase the chances of IPS success (Beswetherick, 2011). There is sufficient evidence that in the last two decades, the support employments more so the IPS has been effective in helping individuals with severe mental illness get employment. Likewise this model has shown positive outcomes in comparison to other traditional models which include the sheltered workshop and the psychosocial rehabilitation programs. For instance, studies have it that individual who are participating in IPS programs work more, earn more wages, have reduced rates of attrition and they less often visit mental health services compare to others in other models. Therefore the positive attributes of these models are vividly recognized but research has it that the benefits of IPS in helping the clients to maintain their employment positions for a prolonged duration are the modest (Pritchard, 2015). Job Tenure Brief job tenure has persistently been a troubling issue for workers who suffer from severe mental illness. Despite the fact that supported employment shows improvement in the overall vocational performance of people with severe mental illness and an alleviated competitive employment level that those under prevocational l approaches, many researches show that a low percentage of this clients have a prolonged benefit from it. This is because many clients experience brief job tenure and others unsuccessful end of jobs. Empirical research reveals that clients with severe mental illness can only maintain their jobsfor six months although some are employed for a longer period of time like 9-11 months yet others can only last for fewer moths or weeks (Du, 2012). The rate at which clients with severe mental illness get their jobs being terminated is alarming and can pose a lot of answered questions to the IPS model. It is also evident that getting a job is much easier than maintain the job after theacquisition. Insufficient attention to lifestyle and judgments with attitude are postulated to be the main causes of clients failing to maintain their jobs (Mckay&Martin, 2007) However, people with severe mental illness who find jobs that are similar to their job preferences have a higher tendency to stay longer in an employment. This is therefore a motivating that clients should be given the jobs that they prefer and best fit their skills. This is because research shows that those who have theirpreferencescatered for stay twice as long in their positions compared to those who are assigned to tasks that they do not prefer. Long job tenure and best vocational performance are therefore found to be achieved through high levels of self-confidence, professional qualifications and cognitive performance (Boles &Winsor 2012). Support employment programs in Australia In Australia, the disability employment strategy and the national mental health are the significant section of the government’s social inclusion program. It recognizes the people who are living with disability and that their exclusion in from social participation and employment are fully not denied however much the country experiences a low or declining employment opportunities. In the past decade, the federal government of Australia focused its health reforms on the alleviation of the major services. This entitled the evidence-based treatment and the inclusion of the integral practices between mental health services and employment. Moreover, non-governmentalorganizations have also boosted these reforms by developing new educational and employment policies which offer main social inclusion for the clients who take part in various settings (Beswtherick, 2012). Since 2006, this supported employment model also called open employment, has been established in Australia with a comparative employment outcomes being achieved. About 46 to 65% of people with severe mental illness are employed (Pack 2015). Despite this positive results, this system still has some weaknesses structurally with tends to diminish the overall outcome achieved by this model. Theseresultsshow a necessity for a further policy and a program development that will, ensure that the relationship between the health providers and the employment are durable and effectively established in order to enhance the IPS results (Pritchard 2015). LEAP-HOPE In the year 2009, LEAP(local employment access partnership was founded by the social firms of Australia, a program that was funded by the department of education, workplace relations, and employment of Australia. Project was started with an aim of improving the service delivery for the people with severe mental illness thro enhancement of collaboration and communication between major support services (Wielandt, 2011). Conclusion Many different trainingprograms and support initiatives have been put in place to address the restrictive nature of workplace participation of people who have severe mental illness. However, despite the advances in this field, the rate of unemployment is still alleviated and job tenure is persistently not long lasting even after abundant support. It is estimated that 10 to 20% of clients with severe mental health illness are working in employment settings that are the mainstream. This is a clear indication of the amount of work that has to be done. However, support employment has shown some success globally and therefore should be adapted in Australia. References Beswetherick, J. (January 01, 2011). 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