Human Service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Service - Essay Example Supported Employment is defined as integrated work environment offering competitive work to people with significant disabilities together with the support to enable them perform their functions (Anthony, 2005, Pg.2). Before the introduction of supported employment, people with significant disabilities had very few options for work such as special segregated workshops and work activity programs. Moreover, supported employment programs have enabled the disabled to access personalized and continuing support in competitive work setting, thus integrating the community workforce and presenting the disabled with opportunity to work in competitive employment. The introduction and development of the SE was very innovative and ambitious in that, first, placement into jobs was achieved faster without much job preparation found in sheltered workshops; secondly, support was assured for all the time needed in the competitive job; thirdly, there was general assumption that all people regardless of their disabilities can perform important and productive work in a normal work environment (Anthony, 2005, P.2). With these approaches, the SE introduced a rapid departure from the conservative services for the state VR agencies and permanent support agencies supporting persons with severe disabilities. The SE was a hybrid of the two systems aimed at supporting the severely disabled in community jobs. Moreover, the SE transformed the funding system of the VR agencies and the permanent services agencies, with the former starting to fund extensive work setting supports to more needy groups than previously catered for and the later started funding work related services in competitive work environments. The SE was originally crafted for people with developmental disabilities and later was incorporated into psychiatric rehabilitation program (Anthony, 2005. P.3). Research on early psychiatric vocational rehabilitation facilities implied need to establish vocational rehabilitation services , with the fundamental principles of psychiatric rehabilitation (PR) and those of SE sharing many similarities. With the research recommendations, the Center for Mental Services (CMHS) sponsored the SE implementation resource kit structured to support the implementation of SE as evidence based practice in psychiatric rehabilitation program (Anthony, 2005, P.4). The SE works through state agencies dealing with VR disabilities and mental health, utilizing several of purchase of service (POS) programs to secure employment from provider agencies. Many of the POS programs share similarities in their defined services, a purchasable unit for each service and a unit cost for each defined service (Novak, Mank, Revell & Zemaitis, n.d, P.3). The POS program has enabled the growth of hour-based POS agreement, based on personalized program information with defined units of services received by each customer. This has improved the number of VR agencies utilizing the result based funding strategie s to access SE services from the community. The impact that supported employment has had in the rehabilitation field The SE has impacted very much on the rehabilitation field especially in terms of cost effectiveness, societal integration and health benefits. Cost effectiveness Implementation of SE in rehabilitation programmes has proved to be more cost effective compared to other VR programmes.