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Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Supported Employment for People Experiencing Homelessness

SOAR extends beyond accessing SSI/SSDI and also encourages employment as a means to increase individual income and further promote recovery. This issue brief explores Individual Placement and Support (IPS), a model of supported employment that has been developed over the past 25 years specifically for people who have behavioral health needs.

Individual Placement and Support

  • Individual Placement and Support (IPS)  is often used as a supportive employment model for individuals experiencing serious mental illness.
  • IPS tools such as job follow along plans (PDF), job start reports (PDF) and job end reports (PDF) often contain information such as the individual’s employment goals and objectives, job titles, job duties, rate of pay, changes in job duties/schedule, reason for job ending (from the individual’s perspective and the employer’s perspective), and what support is/has been provided to the individual.  
  • Information gathered from an individual’s IPS documents can be helpful to include when completing the occupational history and functional information sections of the Medical Summary Report (MSR).
This issue brief describes the following:
  • How IPS helps people to find and keep satisfying jobs
  • What are expected employment outcomes
  • How IPS helps people who have experienced homelessness
  • How you can find IPS employment services
  • Sources for more information

Resources

Files