Barriers to Vocational Effectiveness in ACT, Essay Example

Introduction

The articles examine the diverse barriers that prevent the mentally ill persons from gaining an employment opportunity in an integrated society that pay minimum wage. Waynor and Pratt (2011) examines the role of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program that is designed to assist the mentally ill persons in the society attain their employment goals. On the other hand, Cathaleene et al. (2006) compared the assertive community treatment (ACT) program with a certified clubhouse towards the delivery of supported employment goals among the mentally ill. The paper will examine the different ideas of the authors of the two articles to infer and make the appropriate judgment.

Waynor and Pratt (2011) carried out their studies intending to finding whether the ACT program assists the mental persons in the society attain their employment goals. The authors wanted to identify those factors that deter the ACT personnel in helping consumers with getting employment to find out the efficiency of the ACT program in assisting the mentally challenged persons. According to the authors, ACT program should increase the stability and improve the life conditions of mentally ill persons. The authors used ACT vocational models to gain insight into the vocation situation among the mentally ill persons in the society. They believe that employment is the only avenue in which the mentally ill people can enjoy equality in the society. Cathaleene et al. (2006) believe that supported employment is important tools that are tailored to assist those persons with mental illness. Nonetheless, the authors of the two articles shared a common ground because they wanted to know the effectiveness of the supported programs towards assisting the mentally ill persons get employment in the society. According to Cathaleene et al. (2006), when the mentally ill are hired, it does not mean they will succeed in their jobs. It is because the employers were showing interest to enrol ate the start of the program, but later only average will succeed.

Furthermore, Cathaleene et al. (2006) used randomized controlled trial method, where sample recruitment was developed by representatives from local organizations as well as, the National Alliance of Mental Illness Chapter in Worcester. The method was ideal because the study was meant to compare the ACT and certified clubhouse and the nature of the sample being heterogeneous adults favored the method of collecting data. On the other side, Waynor and Pratt (2011) used a two-step survey method, where the initial survey comprised of 60 ACT staff members and the second comprised of 134 staff members to collect the needed information. The study was carried by New Jersey ACT team members. This was an ideal method of collecting data because the study wanted to find barriers that hinder consumers from attaining employment goals, which implies that ACT staff was appropriate for the study.

According to the results from the article by Waynor and Pratt (2011), it was evident that there were several issues that they need to sort out to increase the effectiveness of the ACT program. From the results of the study, it is evident that the ACT staff need to view themselves as providers towards assisting the mentally ill persons attain employment goals. The results also pointed out the need to for substance abuse specialists to play a leading towards integrating vocational services with substance abuse treatment to reduce the barrier that hampers the ACT staff from offering the needed services. On the article Cathaleene et al. (2006), showed that there is the need of integrating supported employment in multiservice programs to attain broader diffusion of supported employment programs. This is effective because there will be no need to reduce vocational service quality.

Conclusion

However, the two studies had some limitations in examining the role the entire issue of supported employment programs. Cathaleene (2006) questions the fact the statewide funding for novel supported employment programs was in its second year, which meant that there was high likelihood this would have limited the participants. This implies that the results may not represent the facts or the goal of the study. On the other hand, Waynor and Pratt (2011) examined only the ACT personnel attitudes and barriers towards employment goals. The results were biased because the study should have looked at different variables to get the results the study intended to find. Consequently, it was significant for the study to use different variables that could have allowed better analysis, hence conclusion of the topic. The study lacked the element of variability that means the results cannot reflect the real picture of the effectiveness of  the ACT program.

ACT and certified clubhouse can assist attaining employment outcomes like those of the exemplary supported employment team. Thus, integrating supported programs will mean that the employment opportunities will be availed, and the quality of vocational service will improve. The staff attitude as seen in the results indicates that employment plays a primary role towards recovery, which is an important observation. ACT program was found to be effective towards allowing persons with mental illness attain employment goals.

References

Cathaleene, M, Rodican, F.C, Hargreaves, W.A, Jones, R, D, Barreira, P.J, and Qi, W. (2006). Supported Employment Outcomes of a Randomized Controlled Trial of ACT and Clubhouse Models. Psychiatric Services, Vol 57 (10).

Waynor, R.W, and Pratt, W.C. (2011).Barriers to Vocational Effectiveness in ACT: Staff Perspectives. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association 17(1).