Occupational Therapy News OTnews October 2019 | Page 28

FEATURE WORK
The rise – and rise – of IPS
Growing numbers of IPS
employment specialists
are being deployed across
England to support people
with severe mental health
into employment, hears
Andrew Mickel
T
he employment statistics for people with mental health issues are shocking. As
many as 90 per cent of people with mental health issues would like to work, but
only 37 per cent are in paid employment – and for people with severe mental
illness, it is only eight per cent.
But traditional models of support have not had great success rates. Only 11 per cent of
people with mental health issues were supported into employment by the Work Programme,
for example.
Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a structured programme to support people with
severe and enduring mental health issues into employment. Studies show it achieves twice the
rate of traditional employment support: IPS clients who gain work go on to have fewer relapses
and fewer days in hospital, and sustain their new employment for longer at higher pay rates.
With a strong evidence base, it is little wonder that NHS England is funding rapid expansion
to support people with severe mental illness. Major tranches of funding were committed under
2016’s Five Year Forward View and then this January’s NHS Long-Term Plan, that will see the
numbers able to access the programme rise to 115,000 by 2029, constituting half of the eligible
population, and representing a twelvefold increase on 2016.
Trials are also underway to see if IPS could help people with long-term health conditions, mild
or moderate mental health conditions, or a substance misuse history.
If you have not already met an employment specialist working as part of IPS, you will do soon.
‘It gives them hope’
A lot of the themes in IPS will be familiar to occupational therapy core values – the way that
unemployment is damaging to people’s wellbeing and those around them and the improved
quality of life and reduced symptoms for those who do find paid employment.
28 OTnews October 2019