Citation
Decker, Paul T., and Thornton, Craig. (1996). Effective employment services for persons with mental retardation. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 7, 29-40.
Highlights
- This study combined data from an impact evaluation and an associated process study of the Transitional Employment Intervention (TEI) to identify effective supported employment services for people with mental retardation.
- TEI randomly assigned eligible Supplemental Security Income recipients to a treatment or control group at eight training agencies serving 13 communities in seven states. All eight agencies implemented the basic demonstration model successfully, although their methods of providing basic services differed, as did their results. Overall, average earnings were substantially higher for people who were enrolled in the demonstration. However, agency-specific estimates varied from large and statistically significant to small and not statistically significant.
- By comparing the implementing agencies across multiple characteristics identified in the process study, this study found that the most successful programs tailored their services to the needs of each participant, developed jobs in a wide array of occupations, and kept people in the program for a longer period than the other agencies. The implementing agencies persisted in placing participants who lost a job into second, third, or fourth jobs.
- The study also found cost implications of the successful strategies. Average costs for the three high-impact agencies were approximately $7,000 per enrolled participant, and approximately $6,000 per participant for the three low-impact agencies.
Reviewed by CLEAR
November 2014