BACKGROUND: For people with mental illness (psychiatric survivors),
seeking and securing employment involves personal, social, and environmental
factors. In Canada, psychiatric survivors are under-represented in the
workforce, and services can help by tailoring their supports to help make
the most gains in employment.
OBJECTIVE: Determine whether individual socio-demographic and
health factors predict seeking and securing employment among psychiatric
survivors.
METHODS: A community sample of psychiatric
survivors from a Southwestern Ontario region participated in this
study. Stepwise logistic regression was used to analyze data from 363
participants who had completed a variety of questionnaires to ascertain
individual characteristics and employment outcomes.
RESULTS: Health service utilization, living circumstances,
homelessness, substance use issues, general health, social integration,
ethnicity, having children under 18, and being a student emerged as
significant predictors of seeking and securing work. Other commonly accepted
human capital indicators, such as education and age, were not predictive of
employment search behavior and outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: Individual characteristics that predict employment
search and success outcomes for psychiatric survivors include aspects
related to treatment and living circumstances, which stands in contrast to
predictors of employment for the general population, suggesting that
employment support services may need to be tailored to psychiatric survivors
specifically.
