IPS Employees Experiences of Job Support

Project summary

The evidence based Individual Placement Support (IPS) approach; developed to support people with SMI rapidly into competitive employment, includes help from employment specialists (ES) /job coaches, employers, and mental health care- and welfare service professionals. The strength of IPS is ways of “harnessing users own social and practical skills to achieve goals”; the ES`s competencies are predictors for the individual`s employment outcomes. Approximately 56% IPS employees are likely to get jobs; equally in Norway. However, as the average tenure in paid employment remains low, even with IPS support, we need to understand why. Few international qualitative studies of IPS users’ experiences have been identified –none Norwegian. Thus, the aims of this study is to explore Norwegian IPS user’ experiences of receiving job support inside and outside the workplace while engaging in different stages in an IPS program. Research questions: What is it like to be an IPS user? How do IPS users describe their ability to manage real-world issues outside and inside the workplace? How do IPS users describe the support they have received through different stages in the IPS program?

Method

We will carry out one in-depth interview with persons with severe mental illness (IPS employees), who are presently/have been partaking in one of NAV Hordalands`s IPS program. Circa 15 individuals (IPS employees) will be invited to participate, using purposeful sampling. The inclusions criteria for this study require the participants who have been engaged in IPS program for at least 3 months/ or has currently dropped out from the IPS program or from a paid IPS job, and are willing to talk about their IPS job support experiences. Potential participants will be identified by the service providing the IPS program, represented by NAV the leader of Hordaland`s IPS program, Susan J. Savides, who will use NAVs register to find contact information. Each interview is planned to last approximately 60 – 90 minutes, included pauses if needed.