The vast majority of seriously mentally ill individuals have minimal, if any, work history. and lack the skills needed for successful vocational outcomes. The most promising rehabilitation intervention to improve these outcomes -- supported employment -- has not been widely disseminated because of a lack of qualified staff who can provide the support and teach individuals relevant workplace skills. The Principal Investigator and his colleagues have developed a set of highly structured and thoroughly specified treatment """"""""modules"""""""" that are efficiently and effectively used by a wide variety of staff to improve seriously mentally ill individuals social and independent living skills. Much of the content is relevant to the generic difficulties encountered by individuals in the workplace including the effects of antipsychotic medications and symptoms, and engaging in interpersonal interactions. This content is not, however, tailored to the specific challenges of the workplace. This proposal would produce a """"""""Workplace Fundamentals"""""""" module by 1) modifying the current modules content to focus on the specific of the workplace, 2) generating new content important for successful vocational outcomes, and 3) thoroughly field testing the module's efficiency and effectiveness. This module could then be used in a variety of facilities to offer training in these important workplace competencies at relatively low costs, compensating at least in part for the shortage of qualified supported employment specialists. Furthermore, the module could be used as a standardized element in rigorous evaluations of supported employment, alone or in combination with medication and other psychosocial treatments.
