No

A detailed description of the school and employment experience of young adults who are deaf-blind is included in this report. However several commonalities presented themselves within this sample including that the majority of respondents (92% or more), lived with their parent(s) or other relatives, received transition planning for adult life, received special services from their school, and most had one or more accommodation identified on their individualized education program (IEP).

Thirty-four individuals, 17 in each group were employed during the project. There was no significant difference in the hours worked or the earnings for the two groups. The control group held significantly more jobs than the group receiving both modalities indicating there was significantly more job turnover in the group that received individual placement and support only.

At the end of the demonstration, 171 of 310 consumers with mental illness remained active. The mean age of these individuals was 42 years, and most or 57% were male. Over a third or 35% lived in supported housing. Most receive federal income assistance. About half (47%) completed some or received a post secondary degree. Thirty three percent had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. This was followed by 23% other mood disorders, 22% bipolar and 14% schizoaffective disorder and 9% other. Among the 171 participants,70 were placed in a job and 38 were placed more than once. The most frequent type of job was administrative and sales at 24% each. At the end of the demonstration, 73% of the participants were employed and 54% had retained employment for 6 months. Factors related to outcomes included: number of hours provider expended assisting the consumer on a weekly basis, length of time to job acquisition, consumer enrollment with state vocational rehabilitation services, and quality of jobs developed.

Fifty two individuals worked from three months to seventeen years. The follow up survey indicated 20 individuals were employed and living in the community, 15 lived with families and were not working and 17 were hospitalized. On average participants were hospitalized an average of 1.5 times after supported employment as compared to 3.2 beforehand. Events associated with this included: more symptoms due to not taking medication and quitting a job. The time spent out of the hospital increased from 54% before supported employment to 68% afterwards.

Among those students who left high school (weighted n = 4,167), 56 % (weighted n = 2,333)had participated in employment after exiting high school and 44 % (weighted n = 1,834) had not. The average age of those who went to work was 21 years. They worked in 29 different types of occupations. The top five job types included: material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distribution (36.3 %), information and record clerks (12.9 %), building cleaning and pest control workers (8.5 %), retail sales workers (5.2 %), and other production occupations (5.1 %). The mean hourly wage was $7.90 with a range from $2.00 to $30.00, (SD = $22.00).

The system takes both location and time into account. This makes it more useful to the end-user and caregivers.

"Diverse strategies were used to augment implementation of supported employment services: a) Instituting state-level administrative procedures and reconfiguration of local staffing to enhance collaboration between mental health and vocational rehabilitation; b) Promoting SE services through the media, online training, and training by early adopters; c) Hiring benefits specialists; d) Teaching outcome-based supervision; and e) Building capacity for supported employment fidelity reviews" (p. 13).