The third volume in Innovations in Practice and Service Delivery with Vulnerable Populations, this is aimed at students and practitioners in psychiatric rehabilitation programs and social work classes dealing with severely mentally ill.

Traditional approaches to vocational rehabilitation, such as skills training classes, job clubs, and sheltered employment, have not been successful in helping people with severe mental illness gain competitive employment. Supported employment, in which clients are placed in jobs and then
trained by on-site coaches, is a radically new conceptual approach to vocational rehabilitation designed for people with developmental disabilities. The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) method utilizes the supported employment concept, but modifies it for use with the severely mentally ill. It
is the only approach that has a strong empirical research base: rates of competitive employment are 40% or more in IPS programs, compared to 15% in traditional mental health programs. The third volume in the Innovations in Practice and Service Delivery with Vulnerable Populations series, this will
be extremely useful to students in psychiatric rehabilitation programs and social work classes dealing with the severely mentally ill, as well as to practitioners in the field.

. . . those of us in the clinical and administrative fields can thank the authors of A Working Life for People with Severe Mental Illness for this clear, practical book on integrating work into clinical treatment. The authors, both well-known leaders in clinical and research aspects of vocational rehabilitaiton of persons with severe mental illness, set out to lay to rest the notion that only work in a sheltered environment - or perhaps no work at all - is appropriate for people with severe mental illness . . . Becker and Drake have writen an inspiring and thoughtful challenge to those of us working in mental health care - our patients can work, and there is an evidence-based practice that will support them to succeed.