The Career Patterns of Persons with Serious Mental Illness: Generating a New Vision of Lifetime Careers for those in Recovery

Abstract This article reviews the findings from two small scale studies - one quantitative and one qualitative - that examined the career patterns of persons with serious mental illness, in which consumers reported on the types of jobs, wages and benefits, job duration, job satisfaction, and reasons for job changes throughout their careers. Both studies report that consumers have held many jobs, often successfully, and often stayed at their jobs for periods of time roughly comparable to their non-disabled co-workers. However, because most jobs were in entry-level and low-wage fields, these long-term career patterns were often marked by little economic progress. The authors suggest that the vocational rehabilitation field needs to reconceptualize both the past careers of this population and the careers that many of those with serious mental illness will be likely to have in the future.