Vocational Services as Intervention for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Implications for Addiction Studies Education

ABSTRACT

This study examined factors influencing employment outcomes of people with substance-related disorders (SRDs) in state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies. The sample included 34,774 VR clients with SRDs from fiscal year 2001. Mean age of participants was 38.35 years. Predictor variables included personal and service variables and the criterion was employment. The chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis indicated that job placement was the most significant predictor of employment for people with SRDs. Additional variables predicting employment were other services, substantial counseling, restoration services, case expenditures, being married, and work disincentives. The CHAID analysis provided useful information about effective VR services for people with SRDs. Implications for addictive studies education were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance abuse
• vocational rehabilitation
• employment
• addiction studies

This study was supported in part by a Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project (Rehabilitation Research Institute for Underrepresented Populations [RRIUP]), which was funded by Grant No. H133A031705 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to Southern University.