|
Health and Disabilities
Mental and physical health problems and disabilities are among the most common obstacles to steady employment. MDRC is currently building a portfolio of projects testing innovative strategies to improve employment and health outcomes for individuals facing health-related employment barriers.
Despite 20 years of advocacy and legislation designed to expand employment opportunities for the disabled, the number of people with disabilities who work has remained persistently low, and the disabled have become increasingly dependent on income assistance programs, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Policymakers and advocates are searching for strategies that can bring more people with disabilities into the economic mainstream.
In the late 1970s, MDRC studied a pathbreaking transitional employment program for mentally retarded young adults. More recently, researchers here have initiated two large-scale random assignment studies for the Social Security Administration focusing on individuals with disabilities. The Accelerated Benefits Demonstration, being conducted by MDRC with Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), will test whether providing immediate health insurance coverage promotes employment and reduces benefit receipt for individuals just approved for SSDI benefits. MDRC is also working with MPR on the Youth Transition Demonstration, which is testing educational, employment, and other services for young people who are either receiving disability benefits or at risk of receiving them.
The Rhode Island Working Towards Wellness project, a site in the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration, is testing a telephonic outreach and care management intervention for working-age adults with children who are on Medicaid and have undiagnosed depression.
As part of the multi-site Employment Retention and Advancement project, MDRC is testing two specialized welfare-to-work programs in New York City, one targeting recipients with work-limiting disabilities and another targeting recipients with substance abuse problems.
|
|
