Long-Term Unemployment: A Social Determinant Underaddressed Within Community Behavioral Health Programs.

Employment has the potential to contribute to positive health outcomes for people with serious mental illnesses; however, its flipside, long-term unemployment, is a social determinant that has not been consistently recognized for its negative effects. Therefore, in this column, the authors examined how the widely accepted notion that unemployment is extremely deleterious to health is largely overlooked. Clinical risk factors related to long-term unemployment are identified as well as the inadequate response to them within mental health systems of care.

Cruise ships and kayaks: welfare and rehabilitation approaches for women with disabilities in poverty.

Women with disabilities have low employment rates and about one-third live in poverty. They represent half of the population using either services of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system or the welfare system, and many use both. Although both systems have made gains in improving their employment status, neither comprehensively addresses the needs of this population.