L’Encéphale (2014) 40, S45—S56 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.em-consulte.com/produit/ENCEP EMPLOYABILITY AND MENTAL DISABILITY Supported employment for persons with serious mental illness: Current status and future directions  Le modèle du soutien à l’emploi pour les personnes ayant une maladie mentale sévère : situation actuelle et orientations futures K.T. Mueser * , S.R. McGurk Departments of Occupational Therapy, Psychology, and Psychiatry; Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University, 940 Commonwealth Avenue West, Boston, MA 02215, United States Received 8 April 2014; accepted 29 April 2014 Available online 11 June 2014 KEYWORDS Supported employment; Severe mental illness; Individual placement and support IPS Summary The individual placement and supported (IPS) model of supported employment is the most empirically validated model of vocational rehabilitation for persons with schizophrenia or another serious mental illness. Over 18 randomized controlled trials have been conducted throughout the world demonstrating the effectiveness of supported employment at improv- ing competitive work compared to other vocational programs: IPS supported employment is defined by the following principles: 1) inclusion of all clients who want to work; 2) inte- gration of vocational and clinical services; 3) focus on competitive employment; 4) rapid job search and no required prevocational skills training; 5) job development by the employ- ment specialist; 6) attention to client preferences about desired work and disclosure of mental illness to prospective employers; 7) benefits counseling; and 8) follow-along sup- ports after a job is obtained. Supported employment has been successfully implemented in a wide range of cultural and clinical populations, although challenges to implemen- tation are also encountered. Common challenges are related to problems such as the failure to access technical assistance, system issues, negative beliefs and attitudes of providers, funding restrictions, and poor leadership. These challenges can be overcome by tapping expertise in IPS supported employment, including standardized and tested mod- els of training and consultation. Efforts are underway to increase the efficiency of training methods for supported employment and the overall program, and to improve its effec- tiveness for those clients who do not benefit. Progress in IPS supported employment  This research was supported by NIMH grant 2R01MH077210. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mueser@bu.edu (K.T. Mueser). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2014.04.008 0013-7006/© L’Encéphale, Paris, 2014.