Supporting mental health service users back to work

Evidence accumulated over many years illustrates the benefits of work for mental health, including that of mental health service users. Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness of the individual placement and support (IPS) approach in enabling this group to find and keep paid employment, employment rates among mental health service users remain low, and IPS is not widely implemented in the UK. This paper reviews recent evidence for IPS, describes the key features of the approach and compares these with service users' accounts of the kind of support that they find helpful. The current situation regarding implementation of IPS is then considered, together with the barriers hindering implementation. It is clear that the barriers are multifaceted, and action will be required at a number of levels if mental health service users are to be enabled to achieve their employment goals.