Staff Time in the Community: An Enduring Critical Component of Individual Placement and Support in the Digital Age.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between individual placement and support (IPS) employment specialists' time spent in the community and employment outcomes in the current digital age, featuring increased technology use and online hiring practices. METHODS: The authors examined the relationship between employment outcomes and IPS employment specialists' time spent in the community at 78 sites in 2018 and 84 sites in 2019. RESULTS: The amount of time staff spent in the community was significantly and positively associated with better employment outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the continued importance of employment specialists' spending time in the community with employers and IPS recipients to achieve optimal outcomes for recipients.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Statewide Individual Placement and Support Employment Initiative.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the provision of behavioral health care services across the United States. This column examines this impact within the context of New York State's supported employment initiative, which involved 89 implementation sites before the start of the pandemic. The pandemic caused changes to the training and implementation supports provided, the number of sites providing these services, and the ways in which sites provided supported employment services. Although mean self-assessed implementation fidelity decreased modestly, employment outcomes that dipped early in the pandemic rebounded quickly to prepandemic levels.

Relationship Between Self-Assessed Fidelity and Self-Reported Employment in the Individual Placement and Support Model of Supported Employment.

OBJECTIVE: A growing body of literature demonstrates that high-fidelity implementation of the individual placement and support (IPS) model of supported employment increases the chances of achieving desired outcomes. This study examined the relationship between IPS fidelity, as self-reported by program sites, and employment outcomes and determined whether this relationship was maintained over time. METHODS: A total of 78 outpatient programs in New York State provided data on self-reported IPS fidelity and employment outcomes. Pearson correlations were used to determine the relationship between fidelity scores and competitive employment rates. A mixed-effects model examined the relationship between repeated fidelity and employment measures over time. RESULTS: A significant positive relationship was found between better self-reported IPS fidelity and greater employment. The relationship between IPS fidelity and employment was sustained over time (up to one year). CONCLUSIONS: Higher-fidelity implementation of the IPS model, as self-assessed by program sites, was associated with higher employment rates, which were sustained over time.

Is There a Role for Fidelity Self-Assessment in the Individual Placement and Support Model of Supported Employment?

OBJECTIVE: Fidelity assessments help ensure that evidence-based practices are implemented properly. Although assessments are typically conducted by independent raters, some programs have implemented self-assessments because of resource constraints. Self-assessments were compared with independent assessments of programs implementing individual placement and support supported employment. METHODS: Eleven community-based outpatient programs in New York State completed both self- and independent assessments. Intraclass correlation coefficients and paired t tests were used to compare scores from self- and independent assessments. RESULTS: For both assessment methods, mean scores for all programs were within the range of fair fidelity. Self- and independent assessment total scores were not significantly different; however, significant differences were found on some scale items in this small sample. CONCLUSIONS: Self-assessment may be valid for examining a program's overall functioning and useful when resource constraints prevent independent assessment. Independent assessors may be able to identify nuances, particularly on individual assessment items, that can point to areas for program improvement.

Use of learning collaboratives by the center for practice innovations to bring IPS to scale in New York State.

This column focuses on use of learning collaboratives by the Center for Practice Innovations to help programs implement the evidence-based individual placement and support model of supported employment in New York State. These learning collaboratives use fidelity and performance indicator data to drive the development of program-specific individualized quality improvement plans. As of 2014, 59 (69%) of 86 eligible programs have joined the initiative. Programs are achieving employment outcomes for consumers on par with national benchmarks, along with improved fidelity.