Search Results

Mental ill-health can lead to poor work performance, high sickness absence and reduced labour market participation, resulting in considerable costs for society. Improving labour market participation of people with mental health problems requires well-integrated policies and services across the education, employment, health and social sectors. This paper provides examples of policy initiatives from 10 OECD countries for integrated services. Outcomes and strengths and weaknesses of the policy initiatives are presented, resulting in the following main conclusions for future integrated mental health and work policies and services: more rigorous implementation and evaluation of integrated policies is necessary to improve labour market outcomes - implementation cannot be left to the discretion of stakeholders only; better financial incentives and clearer obligations and guidelines need to be provided to stakeholders and professionals to participate in integrated service delivery; each sector has a responsibility to assure integrated services in line with client needs, in turn requiring much better knowledge about the needs of clients with a mental illness; more integrated provision of services within each sector - for example through employment advice brought into the mental health system and psychological expertise brought into employment services - appears to be the easiest and most cost-effective approach.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Despite years of Commonwealth and state legislative advancement, employment rates for people with disability in Australia remain unacceptably low. To help bridge this employment gap, state and local government are implementing inclusive hiring and procurement practices as strategies to create employment opportunities for people with disability. Such actions unequivocally require high-level leadership and political commitment. This paper was inspired by the Bayside Regional Partnership Disability Employment Project. The aim of the project is to support Victorian local governments in becoming employers of choice for people with disability specifically through hiring and procurement processes. The paper draws on a review of Australian and international literature on disability employment and social procurement. Government publications examining public procurement as a policy response to unemployment, as well as reports produced by social procurement intermediary organisations both in Australia and internationally, were also reviewed. Analysis of relevant local government disability action and procurement plans was included as part of the literature review. The findings provide a foundation for consultation with council inclusion and procurement teams.

Section one outlines Australia's disability legislative and policy context and explores the role that local government and Local Area Coordinators (LACs) play in facilitating employment opportunities for people with disability. Section two gives a brief synthesis of good practice disability employment recommendations for employers. As there is already an abundance of research, this section is intended to offer only a summary of existing knowledge and provide references for deeper exploration. Section three looks at social procurement as an inclusive employment strategy. It explores the different steps local governments might take in developing an organisational strategy for purchasing socially.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

At the age of 16, young disabled people in the UK hold the same aspirations to stay in education and find fulfilling careers as their non-disabled classmates. This independent review recommends changes to government policy to support disabled people to work in any role in any sector by doubling the numbers of people able to use Access to Work support, and raising the overall numbers securing specialist disability employment support to 100,000 within existing resources. The review aims to make the case for cross-Government work to unlock the big enablers of employment: raising aspirations of what disabled people can achieve across our education, health and social care services; and developing more equitable ways to ‘get in’ (more disabled people doing apprenticeships, work experience, work placements, and on-the-job learning), ‘stay in’ (better promotion of Access to Work for retention), and ‘get on’ (whether setting up your own business or mutual, or gaining skills for career development).

Excerpts from publication. Show less

In this paper the author reviews the equity studies she has undertaken during the last decade, looking at issues of gender, disability and poverty. The problems with confining equity research and policy to a ‘target group’ approach are discussed and the author offers as an alternative a managing diversity strategy for VET underpinned by an accompanying policy-focused research strategy.

The volume of collected papers from the workshop is indexed at TD/TNC 66.421; individual papers may be found from TD/TNC 66.422 to TD/TNC 66.433. Show less

This report examined the following: existing opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds to participate in decision making; the perceptions and expectations of participation; the experiences of participation; the strengths and limitations of targeted versus universal approaches to involving young people; motivations for participation; barriers to participation; benefits of participation; and strategies for involving young people from diverse backgrounds. The research explores the attitudes and experiences of policy makers and service providers, and young people from diverse backgrounds. For the purposes of this project, young people from diverse backgrounds were defined as those aged 12-25 years from one or more of the following backgrounds: Indigenous; culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), including refugee and recently arrived communities; low socio-economic backgrounds; young people who have a disability; and young people who are, or have been, under the guardianship of the Minister (particularly those in foster care). Overall, the research demonstrated that although government and community organisations that run formal youth participation mechanisms support the idea of involving a range of young people from diverse backgrounds in decision making processes, this has not translated to widespread involvement of young people from the targeted backgrounds. Show less

Throughout the OECD, there is growing recognition that mental health is a major issue in social and labour market policy. Mental illness exacts a heavy price on people, employers, and the economy at large, affecting wellbeing and employment, and causing substantial productivity losses. Austria has seen a rapid increase over the past 20 years in sickness absences and disability benefit claims attributable to mental disorders. Overall benefit dependency among the working-age population is high, with many claimants of all types of benefits, including unemployment benefit, reporting mental health problems. While the Austrian labour market is in good shape and was comparatively little affected by the recent economic downturn, at least initially, the mentally unwell underperform in the job market. Their unemployment rate is almost thrice the national average and their employment rates are lower.

Excerpts from publication.

The chapters are as follows: Executive summary; Assessment and recommendations; Mental health and work challenges in Austria; Benefit reform in Austria to tackle widespread inactivity; Preventing labour market exit at Austrian workplaces; Improving the job prospects of vulnerable young people in the Austrian education system; Linking mental health policy in Austria to other policy fields. Show less

This kit aims to further integrate people with disabilities within the adult and community education (ACE) sector. The kit is targeted at management committees, coordinators of programs and teachers/tutors. It looks at access issues and provides useful strategies to enable providers to increase the access of people with disabilities. An outline of relevant legislation is given and examples are included of effective provider policies and examples of good practice. A useful checklist is included which enables providers to consider the accessibliity of their organisation. Strategies for improving instruction in class are also included will be of particular use to teachers and tutors in adult and community education programs. Show less

Background: The eight Partnerships in Employment states each formed a consortium of stakeholders to advance systems change to improve competitive integrated employment outcomes for youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The eight states include Alaska, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Objective: As the national evaluator, The Lewin Group evaluates the states' progress in achieving their goals. These include enhancing collaborations, developing or changing policies, removing systemic barriers, and implementing strategies and promising practices to support competitive integrated employment. Methods: This article provides findings from the evaluation related to the Build Initiative framework's five focus areas of systems change - Context, Components, Connections, Infrastructure, and Scale or Sustainability.

Results: During the five-year grant, each consortium pursued innovative strategies at the state, community, and individual level. These efforts aimed to create better connections, change policies, establish effective programs, create supports, and produce broad impacts to advance systems change supporting youth with disabilities beyond the grant. Conclusions: Despite variations in existing state policies and infrastructure, available resources, and agency priorities, promising practices emerged across and within the eight state consortia to improve competitive integrated employment outcomes for youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Published abstract. Show less

This paper discusses HORIZON, one of three Community Initiatives conducted between 1993 and 1994 in Germany. HORIZON is one of the first transnational human resource programs designed and implemented by the European Social Fund. Community Initiatives differ from national measures as they tend to focus on innovation, transnationality and the multiplier effect. They are project-orientated, such as vocational guidance and counselling, vocational training, job placement or social development training and they tend to have a qualitative structure. The objectives of the HORIZON Initiative were to improve job opportunities for the disabled and socially and economically disadvantaged and to assist their inclusion into society and at work. HORIZON has given the European Social Fund a socio-political dimension far beyond standard labour market policy. This paper presents an evaluation of this program carried out by the Research Unit for Vocational Training and the Labour Market Evaluation. The main objectives of the evaluation of the complete program were to evaluate whether the program reached the target groups, the vocational effects on the participants, how the participants accessed the program, what measures were offered, how the qualifications met them and how the program achieved transnationality. The HORZION project has now been extended as a new Community Initiative called Employment and the Development of Human Resources and now focuses specifically on disabled people.

The volume of collected papers is indexed at TD/INT 60.361. Show less

UK governments since 1997 have introduced significant changes to move disabled people off benefits and into employment. Commentators have criticised the adoption of the 'medical model' of disability implicit in many of these policies, with its focus on individual rather than institutional change. This paper reports empirical data about participants' experiences of one national supported employment program. Participants of WORKSTEP were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences both of work and the support to find work. The rare reports of negative experiences reflect the focus on intervening at the level of individual workers, rather than the workplace or organisation of work. Analysis of their views is valuable in the light of ongoing welfare reform as well as recessionary pressures on labour markets and employment services, which, in emphasising individual solutions to employment problems, may overlook the need for more broad-based, social interventions.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less