Centre for Mental Health

Individual Placement and Support - international experiences

International partners

We are working with international partners to gather information about the international evidence base for supported employment.

Dartmouth Supported Employment Center - Professor Bob Drake and colleagues have lots of resources on support employment and will answer questions.

Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research - carries out research into supported employment

Scottish Development Centre - has a briefing paper on IPS and is looking at the issue of evidence-based supported employment services on behalf of Scotland

International experiences

The Queensland Employment Specialist Initiative

Dr Geoff Waghorn is from the Queensland Center for Mental Health Research, Australia and spent 8 days based at the Centre in May 2010 as part of an International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership event.

He presented an Australian perspective on IPS to a group of colleagues in London.

Meeting Workwise in New Zealand

Workwise, a New Zealand employment agency that helps people with experience of mental illness to choose, get, and keep jobs, recently held a forum meeting to address Improving access to evidence based supported employment (EBSE). Helen Lockett from the Centre was a guest speaker.

She talked about the 'what' and 'how' of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) implementation in the UK and discussed some of the barriers to supported employment while highlighting the extent of change in the last 10 years.

She continued by showing how important it is that the IPS approach is used to its full potential. "There's been a lot of international research on what works to support people getting and keeping jobs. IPS not only has a positive history, it is evidence based and measurable."

You can see Helen's presentations at the meeting below.