Supported Employment and Preventing Early Disability

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The share of young workers falling into early work disability is an increasingly important problem in Norway. Early withdrawal or exclusion from the labor market leads to large individual and societal costs. The SEED-trial is a randomized controlled trial aiming to provide evidence-based knowledge about different approaches to prevent permanent disability and increase labor market participation in this important and vulnerable group. The trial includes young adults aged 18-30 years who are at risk of early work disability, and the participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 interventions, both aimed at facilitating participation in working life: Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation (TVR), offering training and preparation for the labor market in a sheltered environment Supported Employment (SE), focusing on competitive employment in real-life settings without long-lasting preceding training Both interventions are currently provided by The Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV). Supported Employment was introduced recently and is currently being implemented, while traditional vocational rehabilitation with sheltered employment has been around for years. However, no Norwegian controlled studies have been conducted on these practices in this population. The current study will therefore provide new knowledge of the effect of traditional as well as new and promising interventions to increase labor market participation and prevent early disability.

Detailed Description
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A detailed study protocol was published in BMC Public Health in 2016, and is openly available in fulltext at: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3280-x

Official Title
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Supported Employment and Preventing Early Disability (SEED)

Conditions
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Unemployment

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Supported Employment
* Behavioral: Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion criteria: Not in employment or education Receiving temporary benefits Intended for the VR service traineeships in sheltered businesses Exclusion criteria: Not expressing interest in getting help to obtain competitive work Insufficient language skills to answer questionnaires in Norwegian

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 29 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Supported Employment<br>Supported Employment (SE), focusing on competitive employment in real-life settings without long-lasting preceding training. | Behavioral: Supported Employment<br>* Supported Employment (SE), focusing on competitive employment in real-life settings without long-lasting preceding training.<br>|
| Experimental: Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation<br>Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation (TVR), offering training and preparation for the labor market in a sheltered environment. | Behavioral: Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation<br>* Traditional Vocational Rehabilitation (TVR), offering training and preparation for the labor market in a sheltered environment<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Any competitive employment (yes/no) | Several sources of information for competitive employment will be used: Survey data for hours worked and success in employment, and register data for receipt of social security benefits, income, financial assistance, and educational activity. | 12 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Physical and mental health | Survey data (anxiety, depression, disability, fatigue, subjective health complaints, quality of life) | 12 months | 
| Coping | Survey data | 12 months | 
| Illness perceptions | Survey data | 12 months | 
| Alcohol and drug abuse | Survey data | 12 months | 
| Cost effectiveness | Cost/benefit analysis | 12 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Supported Employment, Vocational Rehabilitation, Youth, Sick leave, Disability, Coping, Work, Occupational, Labor market participation, Randomized Controlled Trial