Narrator: Finding employment can be difficult for many people, including those with barriers like substance use disorder or mental health diagnoses. Building evidence on employment strategies, or BEES, is a study of innovative programs designed to boost employment and earnings among people with low incomes. BEES is evaluating the effectiveness of adapting Individual Placement and Support, or IPS, to reach new groups of people.

Megan Millenky: At the beginning of the project, when we were on this kind of listening tour of federal and state agencies of what did they know that worked, who was interested in what types of employment services, and for whom, we kept hearing this IPS model.

Narrator: Developed by Deborah Becker and Robert Drake in the 1970s, there is extensive evidence that the IPS model leads to employment for people with serious mental illness, receiving services through community mental health centers.

Robert E. Drake: As we started having success with lots of people getting back to work, everybody, you know, including clinicians like myself who didn't know much about employment, was impressed that being employed really benefited people. You know, they just started to be more confident, to have more self-esteem, to be more interested in managing their symptoms. Just overall, their quality of life would take a big jump up. And I think many of us who didn't have an employment background were surprised to see that. But it's a very consistent and dramatic finding.

Narrator: With research partners, Abt Global and MEF Associates, MDRC is examining the effectiveness of IPS for different populations. People with substance use disorder and/or behavioral health diagnoses and those receiving public benefits like TANF and SNAP.

Christopher Knoper: At its core, IPS is really about identifying the person. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What challenges do they face? And those could be substance use related. Those can be mental health related. Those can be economic struggle related. But what are those challenges and how do we find a job that you can still do while you navigate these challenges? Something that utilizes your strengths and either avoids or accounts for your weaknesses or challenges, things that you're working on, so that you can be successful.

Narrator: IPS services are tailored to client interests and circumstances.

Samantha Hill: So it's individually placed and just customized. Like, what is it that you want to do? What are your interests and hobbies? How can we work with you? So really getting to know the client throughout every step of the way from the very beginning, where you're just learning a little bit about each other. And then you start looking at building a resume if they've never had one, highlighting their skills and things that they might not even realize that they have or could be considered skills.

Karla Jones: That is another beauty of IPS. We can be very creative and personalized in service. In this case, we had a person that needed to learn how to use the public transportation system. Another client received help with their car. They had a car and they found employment, I would say about 20 something miles away from their home. There is no public transportation to that area. So we were able to help him with new tires and with some engine repairs so that he could use his truck to get to his new job.

Narrator: IPS employment specialists connect with employers in the community to vouch for clients.

Dustin Bailey: IPS, I believe, serves as a bridge between our clients and the hiring community as a whole. And as we know, if you know somebody, if somebody can vouch for you, that makes that process a lot easier for the employer to say, "I trust you, therefore I trust your vouching for this client."

Jen Klimek: One of the employers that I was working with was very receptive to the participants' needs. She was very accommodating. She was understanding of mental health. And one of the things that I took away from speaking with her, she's like, "You know, I understand that everyone's going through something. At the end of the day, our priority is our employees' well-being.

Narrator: There are no exclusions to receiving IPS services.

Kristina Gonyon: So zero exclusion just means that there's nothing that disqualifies a person from utilizing IPS services. No matter what you're going through, what your barriers are, disabilities, what your current situation looks like, criminal history, anything. There's just nothing that makes you not capable of using those services. And to me, what it says is that nobody's not worthy of having a job, of having employment, of having something that can bring them something that they can live off of while also gaining that confidence to be a participating member of society.

Narrator: IPS is often integrated with clinical services a client may be receiving.

Melissa Chavez: We provide care in more of a holistic approach. We're not only just setting up someone for employment like a recruiter might. We're looking at the whole person. So we collaborate with the doctors, nurses, therapists, case managers, to be able to support the participants in all different aspects of their life.

Narrator: Hiring staff members with similar life experiences can help build rapport with clients.

Hope Wagoner: When a client comes to me and shares, "I have bipolar disorder and I have ADHD and I can't talk in these interviews because I'm all over the place and I have all of this trauma," and then we're able to say, "I have bipolar disorder too," or "I have ADHD too and this is how I navigate that," or "This is how I've overcome this," This might be an appropriate thing for you to do when you're going into your interviews.

Narrator: The BEES project will share research findings about the IPS model that may inform policy and practice.

Karla Jones: We are hoping that by implementing IPS at our center, we can help collect data that in turn can help other centers or other programs implement IPS.

Michelle Bonnici: A very successful intervention would be my participants finding their confidence. I think that is number one. When they come to us, they don't have much. They don't think they can do much with their experience and their education. And it's very exciting to put the resume together, help them with their interview skills, and just watch the progress and the look on their face when things start going right.