The ORYGEN Research Centre and University of Melbourne’s School of Behavioural Science and Department of Psychiatry have collaborated on the trial, which took a new approach to helping young mentally ill job seekers find work.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Eoin Killackey, from the School of Behavioural Science, said the results of the trial were extremely promising as young people with mental illness typically had an unemployment rate 10 times higher than their peers.

“The results of our trial show that given the right support, mentally ill young people can find work and potentially reduce their reliance on welfare benefits,” he said.

“We also know that peak levels of disability are caused in the early stages of psychotic illnesses and if we intervene early we can reduce the level of, or perhaps prevent disability.”

All of the 41 job seekers involved in the six-month trial were clients of ORYGEN. Aged between 15 and 25, all expressed a desire to find work.

They were randomly assigned into two groups: one group received standard treatment and were referred to employment agencies contracted to the Government’s Job Network; the second took part in a specialist program which provided intensive individual placement and support from an employment consultant based at ORYGEN.

At the end of the trial, of the 20 people who took part in the specialist program, 13 were working and four were enrolled in a course.

Of the 21 who received standard treatment, only two found work and four were enrolled in a course. Dr Killackey said that young people involved in the specialist employment program worked more weeks and earned more money than those who received standard treatment.

They also earned between two and five times more than what they would have on welfare benefits – and overall, as a group, they reduced their reliance on welfare as a source of income.

They found jobs in a diverse range of areas from forklift driving to apprentice hairdressing.

Dr Killackey said the results were extremely promising and could make a long-term difference to the employment and health prospects of mentally ill young people.

Dr Killackey said unemployment could exacerbate mental illness in young people, who often became involved in substance abuse to alleviate their symptoms, boredom and social isolation.

“This program has the potential to not only provide short term employment experience and skills but also prevent the long-term unemployment that so often accompanies chronic illness,’’ Dr Killackey said.

“Despite wanting to work, more than 75 per cent of people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are unemployed.

“If we can intervene early, we hope to prevent the long-term unemployment that often results from chronic illness.”

Dr Killackey said the trial also highlighted the failure of the current employment system to help young people with mental illness find work.

“Agencies in the employment system often engage in a long, motivation-sapping assessment phase before job-searching begins,’’ he said.

“Employment workers in this system often have caseloads of more than 100 clients and are unlikely to have time to provide the special level of support needed by young people with mental illness.”

Dr Killackey said there were no government-sponsored programs that were effective at supporting mentally ill people to get work in any part of the world.

He said ORYGEN was continuing to offer specialist employment services to its young clients.

It also hopes to conduct further research to investigate the feasibility of offering specialized services for mentally ill people across a wider range of mental illnesses.

The trial was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant and Bristol Myers Squibb.

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