The functional impact of serious psychiatric conditions often includes significant disruptions to normative developmental tasks related to establishing a career, such as completing postsecondary education and honing skills and interests through early exploratory work and training activities. Thus, individuals with psychiatric conditions often have poorer educational attainment than their peers without psychiatric conditions, including lower college enrollment rates (
1,
2), lower course completion rates (
3), and a greater likelihood of dropping out (
4,
5). Most individuals with serious psychiatric conditions also experience substantial challenges in maintaining gainful employment, with studies of workforce participation in this population indicating rates of approximately 15%−25% at any one time (
6–
9). Given the clear association between education level and employment outcomes both in the general population and among individuals with psychiatric conditions (
10,
11), it is likely that disruptions in the attainment of education contribute in part to the poor vocational outcomes among people with these conditions.
Over the past two decades, there has been a growing appreciation of the importance of providing services that explicitly address the barriers to functional recovery, including successful vocational engagement (
12–
16). This increased emphasis on providing effective vocational services for individuals with psychiatric conditions has been motivated in part by the large body of research on supported employment (SE), in particular the individual placement and support (IPS) model of SE; this work has unequivocally demonstrated that IPS can significantly improve competitive employment outcomes in this population relative to other vocational approaches (
17–
19). IPS emphasizes the rapid initiation of a job search for competitive employment based on client preferences, the provision of ongoing individualized job supports, and the close integration of SE and mental health services (
20). The research indicating its effectiveness has helped to fundamentally change the attitudes of practitioners and researchers regarding the ability of people with psychiatric conditions to successfully pursue competitive employment (
21) and the potential for work to contribute to the process of recovery.
Thus, the IPS model has represented a critical advance in how vocational rehabilitation services for individuals with psychiatric conditions are approached. In recent years, however, some researchers in the field have recognized that the standard implementation of IPS, with its steadfast focus on rapid search for competitive employment, may not adequately foster educational or training experiences that facilitate longer-term career development (
22,
23). Expanding the focus of vocational services to include an explicit emphasis on human capital development, especially through the attainment of postsecondary education, could promote greater access to employment in the primary labor market. Compared with low-wage entry-level jobs, positions in the primary labor market should more effectively buffer individuals from the impact of their psychiatric condition by providing increased job security, benefits, and greater financial self-sufficiency (
21,
24–
26). Vocational services that support these career-building pursuits are especially critical for young people, in that focusing on the early acquisition of human capital should aid in minimizing disruptions to the goal and skill development that typically occur during young adulthood and support employability over the long term. In this way, providing services that emphasize the successful completion of these formative career-related tasks to young people with psychiatric conditions may minimize or even prevent the vocational disability and poverty that are so often associated with these conditions (
15,
27,
28).
In accordance with this view and the recognition that young adults are often interested in pursuing educational goals, there have been recent efforts to combine supported education (SEd) and SE services for young people with psychiatric conditions (
14,
18,
29,
30), especially in the context of early intervention programs for first-episode psychosis (
25,
31–
33). Although findings to date suggest that this approach can improve vocational outcomes among young people when considering the combination of “work and/or school” activities (
30,
31,
34), results specifically regarding educational outcomes have been mixed (
30,
31,
35). In addition, given the relatively short follow-up periods of most of these studies, it is not yet clear whether vocational services that include SEd effectively improve career-related outcomes among young people, such as completing postsecondary education and securing positions in the primary labor market (
21).
To inform these burgeoning efforts, we sought to summarize the evidence regarding the effectiveness of specific vocational intervention approaches for improving educational and employment outcomes among young people with psychiatric conditions. Multiple reviews regarding the efficacy of vocational services for adults with psychiatric conditions have been published (
17–
19,
36), and Bond and colleagues (
35) recently published a systematic review examining employment and educational outcomes associated with early intervention programs for psychosis; however, there have been few attempts to synthesize the results of studies evaluating vocational services for the broader population of young people with psychiatric conditions (
37). To address this literature gap, we conducted a systematic review of controlled evaluation studies of vocational interventions for young people with psychiatric conditions. In particular, we sought to determine the extent to which services were tailored specifically to the needs of young people, including through the incorporation of educational supports, and their efficacy to promote gains in postsecondary education and employment. Of note, for the purposes of this review, we use the terms “vocational intervention” and “vocational services” interchangeably and define these as any psychosocial treatment or service that specifically targets educational or employment outcomes (e.g., SE and SEd).
Discussion
The most consistent finding that emerged from this review was that services based on the IPS model were significantly more effective at improving employment outcomes among young people with psychiatric conditions than both treatment as usual and comparison vocational services (e.g., VR and unspecified brokered SE). These results are congruent with a large body of work evaluating IPS for adults with serious psychiatric conditions (
17,
19,
36). Moreover, across the studies reviewed, these findings were observed among both recent-onset psychosis and mixed psychiatric diagnosis samples and with IPS adapted specifically for young people and as delivered in its standard form as an SE service for adults. In contrast, the smaller set of studies that specifically assessed educational outcomes yielded mixed results, with only one RCT of an adapted IPS-based intervention for young adults with recent-onset schizophrenia providing clear evidence of treatment-related gains in education (
30).
The substantial treatment effects of IPS-based services on employment rates observed in several of the trials in our set (e.g.,
30,
31,
43), along with the consistency of these effects across the studies reviewed, are notable. Given the relatively short follow-up periods of these studies, a critical area for further inquiry is the longer-term vocational functioning of young people receiving IPS-based services. In addition to examining the stability of employment, it will be important for future longitudinal studies to incorporate assessments that probe aspects of career development over time, including occupational advancement, the attainment of personally meaningful work, and financial self-sufficiency. Further research is also needed to determine whether IPS adaptations that include components specifically designed to enhance functioning and persistence of young people in vocational settings, such as Nuechterlein et al.’s IPS-WFM intervention (
30), yield greater gains over the long term compared with more standard approaches.
Relatedly, given that neither of the two studies that evaluated vocational outcomes during posttreatment follow-ups found evidence for the persistence of IPS effects on employment beyond the intervention period (
23,
46), additional research is needed on the impact of the duration of IPS-based services in this population. For example, it is possible that the short duration of IPS in the Killackey et al. RCT (
23) (i.e., 6 months) contributed to the apparent loss of the IPS treatment effect during the postintervention follow-up period (see also Hegelstad et al. [
46]). One of the principles of IPS is that employment supports are individualized and ongoing (
54). However, community mental health providers often face resource constraints that hinder the provision of such services (
55), and programs targeting young people in particular are typically time limited. Thus, a better understanding of these factors should inform efforts to develop and deliver employment supports to maximize long-term vocational success.
Given the mixed findings across the five studies of IPS-based interventions that examined school participation (
23,
30,
31,
34,
46), we cannot draw firm conclusions regarding the effectiveness of this approach to promote gains in education specifically (see also Bond et al. [
35]). However, the results of Nuechterlein et al. (
30) suggest that IPS-based services that are adapted to include comprehensive educational supports and skills training can significantly improve both employment and educational outcomes in this population relative to brokered VR services. Although additional research is needed to determine which element(s) of the IPS-WFM intervention (
14,
30) contributed to gains in school participation, considering this intervention alongside those evaluated by the studies reviewed that did not yield improvements in education (
23,
31,
34) further suggest that adapting IPS to include these additional components may help promote educational attainment in this population (see Discussion section in Nuechterlein et al. [
30]). Specifically, based on the intervention descriptions in these reports, we note that the SEd provided as part of IPS-WFM (
14,
30) may have been more comprehensive than the educational supports of these other IPS-based interventions (
23,
31,
34). Likewise, it seems that the WFM component (
30) may have been a more formalized and systematic approach to vocational skills training than that provided by the other services (
23,
27,
34). Given the tentative but encouraging education-specific results of Hegelstad et al. (
46) discussed above, it is worth noting that like Nuechterlein et al. (
30), Hegelstad et al.’s IPS-based intervention included a formal incorporation of SEd, along with staff with SEd-specific expertise. Ultimately, however, because the reports of these studies (
14,
23,
27,
30,
31,
34,
46) varied considerably with regard to how much information they provided about specific educational supports and training components, it is difficult to confidently compare and contrast them.
As discussed by Nuechterlein et al. (
30), it is also possible that differences in the samples of these studies (
23,
30,
31,
34,
46), such as in the proportion of participants interested in education (vs. only in employment) or clinical characteristics (
23,
30,
34), contributed to the mixed education results. For example, there is evidence that the IPS sample of Nuechterlein et al. (
30) may have had a greater proportion of participants interested in pursuing education than the sample of Killackey et al. (
23,
31,
56). Despite these caveats, the findings of Nuechterlein et al.’s well-controlled trial (
30) provide the field with important guidance for efforts to develop services that promote gains in higher education among young people with psychiatric conditions.
Relatedly, our literature search identified several other sources that assessed, in some form, SEd services or combined SE-SEd programs (e.g.,
25,
29,
57,
58). These services included IPS adaptations for young people that emphasized the strengthening of relevant skills and the attainment of education as a means of promoting career development. Although these sources did not meet our inclusion criteria because of the outcomes reported or the lack of a control group, they provide valuable information on how to effectively tailor services to this population, including for young people with a range of psychiatric symptoms and life experiences. At the same time, they highlight the need for more rigorous evaluations of these promising approaches through well-controlled trials. Likewise, we identified several studies of early intervention programs, including the RAISE NAVIGATE Program, Connection Program, and OnTrackNY, that describe the implementation of IPS-based SE-SEd (SEE) in the context of multidisciplinary recovery-oriented services (
32,
33,
59,
60). Although the designs of these studies do not allow one to draw conclusions regarding specific effects of SEE, their results suggest a positive impact of this intervention on vocational functioning and can provide guidance on strategies to maximize service engagement and related outcomes (
32). It will be important for future work not only to add to the empirical base of Nuechterlein et al. (
30) and the other studies in our set through RCTs that assess specific treatment effects on work and school outcomes, but also to extend these findings by evaluating whether such approaches effectively promote outcomes related to longer-term academic success and career development, such as graduation rates and movement into the primary labor market.
As summarized in the
online supplement, we identified one RCT that evaluated the impact of training early intervention staff who were providing IPS in motivational interviewing (MI) techniques (
40). The aims of the MI training were both to address the ambivalence and fears that staff themselves may hold about their clients pursuing competitive employment and to equip staff to implement MI-based strategies with their clients. The results of this study suggest that training IPS clinicians in MI for these purposes can improve both employment and educational outcomes among the young people they serve. Such findings are congruent with recent speculations of Killackey et al. (
23) concerning the potential influence of changes in EPPIC staff attitudes regarding vocational engagement among their clients on the results observed in their recent IPS trial (see also
46,
61).
A limitation of this review was that we did not conduct a meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate outcomes. The decision to conduct a qualitative review only was based on the heterogeneity across studies in the services evaluated and length of follow-up. Furthermore, we restricted our review to RCTs and controlled quasi-experimental studies. Our requirement that studies include a comparison group aligned with our aim to summarize the evidence regarding the effectiveness of vocational services for young people, but it limited the formal review to a relatively narrow set of findings. We did not include a formal evaluation of study quality, although we weighed the consideration of results on the basis of the strengths and notable caveats related to study design. In addition, we did not include unpublished or gray literature, which increased the risk for publication bias.
Furthermore, we focused on a relatively narrow set of interventions and outcomes, without considering other relevant intersecting factors such as immigration status, discrimination on the part of employers and education providers, family involvement, comorbid substance use disorders, socioeconomic status, and disability benefits status. Regarding the latter, multiple findings suggest that receipt of disability benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income, may have persistent detrimental effects on workforce participation (
44,
62,
63) and, furthermore, that providing services that help people with psychiatric conditions avoid the need for initial enrollment may be the most effective means of reducing long-term dependence on these benefits (
64). Thus, systematic work to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to reduce early reliance on disability programs will further inform efforts to develop services that improve long-term vocational trajectories in this population.
Finally, we did not consider organizational- and system-level barriers to community implementation of SE-SEd services for transition-age youths and young adults, such as funding and billing issues (
65). As noted above, limitations of the literature reviewed also affected the conclusions that could be drawn, including the variability across reports in the level of detail provided regarding interventions, the relatively short follow-up periods, and the small number of controlled studies of educational supports and related outcomes in this population.
Conclusions
There has been increasing recognition that the disruptive impact that serious psychiatric conditions typically have on developmental tasks, such as the completion of postsecondary education and early work activities, may be a potent contributor to the chronic disability associated with these conditions. Thus, providing services to young people with psychiatric conditions that actively support the completion of these formative tasks may be a powerful strategy to improve long-term outcomes (
15,
26,
39,
66).
In accord with this view, recent adaptations of vocational interventions for young people have incorporated SEd and other components with the aim of better addressing their educational and employment support needs. The results reviewed here provide evidence for the effectiveness of IPS-based services to improve employment outcomes in this population, with findings to date suggesting that at least in the short term, such IPS-related effects do not depend on specific adaptations for this age group. Although fewer controlled studies have focused on educational outcomes, their findings suggest that additional service components that enhance standard IPS may be important for efforts to improve postsecondary educational outcomes in this population (
23). The elements most clearly suggested by the findings of this review include well-specified, staged educational supports in addition to those for work (
14,
57); comprehensive skills training that includes academic, vocational, and problem-solving areas (
14,
30,
57,
58); and training staff in MI to assist in addressing fears and ambivalence regarding the pursuit of vocational goals (
40). Additional well-controlled studies are needed to evaluate such enhanced approaches, including how they compare with more standard IPS interventions. Such work will help determine how, and to what extent, to adapt the IPS model to best meet the needs of young people (
43,
67,
68). In parallel, further research is needed to identify the factors related to variability in vocational treatment response in this population. This will advance our understanding of how to tailor the combination of service components (
69) and the overall intensity of services according to individual needs to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of resources (
23).
Finally, a secondary set of observations from this review relates to the lack of standardization across the reviewed studies with regard to the specification of treatment models, description of intervention components, and measurement of potential treatment effects, especially with regard to educational supports and outcomes. This lack of descriptive information, which contrasts with that provided for the clearly delineated model that guides IPS-based SE (
20,
31,
70), hinders the process of comparing studies and treatment approaches (
35), as well as attempts to replicate initial promising findings.
As discussed by Mueser and Cook (
21), specifying a formalized framework of principles and service elements for interventions that incorporate SEd and other career-development components would serve to guide the implementation and evaluation of such approaches (see also Killackey et al. [
23]). For example, the recently developed IPS Fidelity Scale for Young Adults (
67) includes items related to both employment and educational supports. Thus, it should aid IPS programs in their efforts to design and deliver services adapted for young people in a manner consistent with IPS principles, as well as facilitate the assessment of these efforts. Similarly, the adoption of standardized descriptions of participant samples, including the proportion of participants interested in education, employment, or both by treatment group, along with standard reporting of employment and education outcome measures (
23), including the type of employment or educational programs entered into or completed by group, would facilitate the rigorous evaluation of such interventions. These steps are critical for advancing the literature and building the evidence base of effective educational and employment interventions for young people with psychiatric conditions.