Ambulant Vocational Rehabilitation of Persons with Mental Illness

The composition of participants and the success of rehabilitation of an ambulant vocational rehabilitation programme for persons with mental illness was examined (Integration Seminar; 1994-2009; n=703). The programme applies an individualized concept of rehabilitation. The findings show that average age and share of participants with psychotic illness had increased over the years. The share of long-term unemployed persons in all was very high and had increased strongly in the 2002-2005 period. Depending on the year of programme completion, the share of successful participants ranged between 50% and 60% a year. The success of rehabilitation turned out relatively stable over all measurement times (r(s)=0.52-0.83) and correlates with resilience, age and duration of unemployment. This implies the necessity of an early beginning of vocational rehabilitation, as the probability of success decreases with increasing duration of prior unemployment. Overall, the concept of individualized ambulant vocational rehabilitation turns out very successful.