Longitudinal Investigation of Vocational Engagement

Abstract The vocational engagement of 216 individuals with an intellectual disability was followed over a 15‐year period. Engagement was operationally defined as activity in five simple categories: competitive, supported, or sheltered employment, plus prevocational and nonvocational daytime activities. Authors sought a long‐term view of trends in vocational and nonvocational engagement among all people who were receiving residential and day supports in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and for whom data collection visits had been conducted during the entire 15‐year period. This was intended to assess what progress toward eventual employment has been made over the past two decades, and this information was aimed toward policy initiatives related to Employment First models. Authors selected all people for whom on‐site quality‐of‐life data were collected continuously from 1994 to 2009. Their primary types of daytime activities were reported, and the number of hours in each type were submitted to analysis. The overall amount of vocational, prevocational, and nonvocational activities changed sharply during the 15‐year period. Vocational and prevocational activity declined, while nonvocational engagement more than doubled, both in numbers of people and hours. During the same time period, the number of employed individuals consistently declined, as did the total number of hours worked. The decline was primarily evident in segregated forms of vocational activity, such as shel...
Source: Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities - Category: Disability Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research