Determinants of wanting to seek full versus part-time paid employment among people with severe mental illness

Abstract

Background: Most people with severe mental illness are not in paid employment. The cost is high, economically and in terms of social exclusion.

Aim: To investigate the number of weekly hours that such people want to be in competitive paid employment and the reasons why.

Methods: Baseline clinical and demographic data were analysed for 219 people with severe mental illness participating in an RCT of supported employment in London, England.

Results: Self-esteem, quality of life, symptom severity and general level of functioning did not largely explain wanting part or full-time work. The latter was significantly associated with having more unmet needs (p = 0.01) and not receiving Incapacity Benefit and/or Income Support (p = 0.04). However, 31% (55/178) of those receiving these benefits did want full-time work, desiring a significantly higher rate of pay than those wanting to work up to 16 hours or 17 to 34 hours per week (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: A sizeable proportion of people with severe mental illness would consider working full-time, potentially overcoming the benefits trap in achieving this. This is contrary to the commonly held belief that such clients only want part-time work.

Keywords:

• Severe mental illness
• employment

Acknowledgement

Supported by the Wellcome Trust, Kings Fund and SLaM Trustees.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.