Employment Outcomes for People with Moderate and Severe Disabilities: An Eight-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Supported Competitive Employment

Abstract

The efforts of those advocating supported employment have resulted in expansion of the opportunities for people with moderate and severe disabilities in the past several years. Results reported previously on the benefits and costs associated with supported competitive employment have been extended in this article from the 4-year period in the previous analysis to the present 8-year analysis. This is one of the few benefit-cost analyses to be completed on people with mental retardation who have received supported competitive employment services. As in the previous analysis, these figures do not reflect theoretical projections, but direct placement data resulting from a longitudinal program. Our results show a final positive financial consequence accrued to the public of $1,057,000, of which more than $525,000 was a direct benefit of placing consumers with moderate and severe disabilities in supported competitive employment. Since this study extended over 8 years, all figures were corrected for inflation and discounting to 1986 (Quarter 1) dollars. By using individual analyses, it was shown that all consumers served benefited financially from the program. Results showed a substantial savings to taxpayers with the utilization of this model, along with significant financial benefits to all consumers, including those with moderate and severe disabilities.