Direct support in supported employment and its relation to job typicalness, coworker involvement, and employment outcomes.

Abstract

Supported employment is a comprehensive package of strategies continually evolving and designed to successfully employ people with disabilities. The emerging nature of natural support is receiving extensive attention. Understanding and improving natural support strategies is a means to provide uniquely distinctive personalized supports. It is this underlying theme that has driven four previous research reports regarding typical employment features and their relation to employment outcomes for people with disabilities. In this report we investigate the previously raised issue that high levels of direct support are associated with less typicalness, integration, and wages. This study shows that wage and integration outcomes can be increased, even if there is a high level of direct support, if there is coworker training.