---
title: "Psych News Alert: Benefits of Supported Employment Persist After Five Years, Study Finds"
description: The benefits of supported employment for individuals with severe mental illness persist up to five years after program enrollment, according...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_151668371-Jun-24-2025-04-39-36-6631-PM.jpg
---

 8/27/14 12:00 AM

# Benefits of Supported Employment Persist After Five Years, Study Finds

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [ Psychiatric News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert)

Share: [facebook-f icon ](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html) [linkedin-in icon ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html) [Twitter icon ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html) [pinterest-p icon ](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html) [envelope icon ](mailto:?body=https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html)

| ![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_151668371-Jun-24-2025-04-39-35-7871-PM.jpg?width=200&height=133&name=shutterstock_151668371-Jun-24-2025-04-39-35-7871-PM.jpg) |  |
| --- | --- |

The benefits of supported employment for individuals with severe mental illness persist up to five years after program enrollment, according to the report "[Long-Term Effectiveness of Supported Employment: 5-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial](http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1897780)" published in *AJP in Advance*.

The study confirms and extends the significant benefits—more hours of competitive work, higher pay, and diminished likelihood of hospitalization—of supported employment for people with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses that had been found at two and three years. Additionally, the study found that over time, the supports associated with the intervention could be removed without diminishing the benefits; recipients became less dependent on the program to retain employment.

In the study, 100 unemployed individuals with severe mental illness were randomly assigned to either the supported employment program or traditional vocational rehabilitation. The supported employment program, known as the Job Coach Project, was modeled after the individual placement and support model of supported employment. Once employed, participants receive on-the-job training and follow-along support to help them keep their jobs.

The researchers found that participants in supported employment were more likely to obtain competitive work than those in traditional vocational rehabilitation (65% vs. 33%), worked more hours and weeks, earned more wages, and had longer job tenures. Reliance on supported employment services for retaining competitive work decreased from the two-year to the five-year follow-up, and participants were also significantly less likely to be hospitalized, had fewer psychiatric hospital admissions, and spent fewer days in the hospital.

Robert Drake, M.D., Ph.D., of Dartmouth University, one of the founders of supported employment, said the findings are consistent with 21 other studies in the literature. “The new findings here are that employment supports can be reduced without eroding benefits, and cost savings are great when you follow people for five years rather than 18 months as in most U.S. trials,” he told *Psychiatric News*.

For more information on this topic, see the *Psychiatric News* article "[Study Finds Evidence Supported Employment Works](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=1829656)." Also see the report "[Supported Employment: Assessing the Evidence](http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/PSS/929507/16.pdf)" in *Psychiatric Services*.

(Image: rvlsoft/shutterstock.com)

[supported employment](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/supported-employment), [severe mental illness](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/severe-mental-illness), [long-term follow-up](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/long-term-follow-up)

## Related posts

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_125096129-Jun-24-2025-10-23-01-7252-PM.jpg?height=200&name=shutterstock_125096129-Jun-24-2025-10-23-01-7252-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/study-shows-association-between-mental.html)

[employment](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/employment), [mental illness](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/mental-illness), [Psychiatric Services](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatric-services)

## [Study Shows Association Between Mental Illness Severity and Employment and Income](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/study-shows-association-between-mental.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 6/17/14 12:00 AM

More severe mental illness appears to be associated with lower employment rates in recent years,...

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/study-shows-association-between-mental.html)

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_168782147-Jun-24-2025-03-40-02-9175-PM.jpg?height=200&name=shutterstock_168782147-Jun-24-2025-03-40-02-9175-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/04/study-find-substantial-evidence-for.html)

[Psychiatric Services](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatric-services), [ilding](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/ilding), [Assessing the Evidence](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/assessing-the-evidence)

## [Study Find Substantial Evidence for Effectiveness of Skill Building in Patients With Psychosis](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/04/study-find-substantial-evidence-for.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 4/22/14 12:00 AM

Skill building—which involves strategies for helping adults with serious mental illness manage...

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/04/study-find-substantial-evidence-for.html)

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/bills_calcularto_iStock-1163111044-Jun-24-2025-05-15-00-8218-PM.jpg?height=200&name=bills_calcularto_iStock-1163111044-Jun-24-2025-05-15-00-8218-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/07/job-placement-augmented-by-cash-account.html)

[employment](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/employment), [serious mental illness](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/serious-mental-illness), [COVID-19](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/covid-19), [Psychiatric Services](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatric-services), [financial wellbeing](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/financial-wellbeing), [cash account](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/cash-account), [job placement](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/job-placement), [budgeting](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/budgeting)

## [Job Placement Augmented by Cash Account Shows Benefits for Patients With Psychiatric Illness](https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/07/job-placement-augmented-by-cash-account.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 7/3/24 12:00 AM

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/07/job-placement-augmented-by-cash-account.html)

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Psychiatric News Alert",
    "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2025-06-24T16:42:39.047Z",
  "datePublished" : "2014-08-27T04:00:00.000Z",
  "headline" : "Psych News Alert: Benefits of Supported Employment Persist After Five Years, Study Finds",
  "image" : [ "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_151668371-Jun-24-2025-04-39-36-6631-PM.jpg" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/08/benefits-of-supported-employment.html",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/PN-Blue-Box.jpg"
    }
  }
}
```