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Vocational Rehabilitation

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Abstract

Employment and vocational difficulties are often overlooked within many mental health treatment settings and yet are often central to what clients are seeking to resolve during treatment. Among the various clinical interventions available to adults with a mental health condition, Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Supported Employment is one of the most well-established evidence-based practices across any mental health area. There are a growing number of interventions that appear to positively enhance employment outcomes when they are added to interventions like IPS Supported Employment, including motivational interviewing, contingency management, cognitive rehabilitation, social skills training, and supported education. Mental health providers should routinely screen for vocational problems and refer appropriate clients to the model of care that is most likely to meet their goals of obtaining employment, stabilizing employment, or improving their vocational situation. New models of care are being piloted and evaluated, and expanded research funding is supporting the search for effective interventions to help veterans deal with vocational problems. All of these developments point to a larger trend in the expansion of services targeting veterans and the greater investment by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, by the Department of Labor, by state and local governments, and by the community in helping veterans meet their goals of returning to productive lives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bedford VA Medical Center, Bedford, MA, 01730, USA

    Charles Drebing, Lisa Mueller, Christopher Waltrous & Walter Penk

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  1. Charles Drebing
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  2. Lisa Mueller
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  3. Christopher Waltrous
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  4. Walter Penk
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Correspondence to Charles Drebing .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA

    Laura Weiss Roberts

  2. US Army Medical Department Active Duty, Fort Stewart, Georgia, USA

    Christopher H. Warner

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Drebing, C., Mueller, L., Waltrous, C., Penk, W. (2018). Vocational Rehabilitation. In: Roberts, L., Warner, C. (eds) Military and Veteran Mental Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7438-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7438-2_12

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