Individual Placement and Support in a Substance Use Disorder Treatment Setting

The Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) Project is conducting an evaluation of an evidence-based employment services model to understand its effectiveness in a new setting with a new population. The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model, originally designed as a framework intended to provide employment services to individuals with serious mental health illness, has gained interest as a strategy to serve other populations. IPS programs at three substance use disorder (SUD) treatment sites in Oklahoma, Ohio, and Illinois, respectively, are providing employment services to individuals with substance use disorders. BEES is evaluating these IPS programs to see whether and how individuals with SUD receiving IPS services alongside SUD treatment and recovery services benefit from the model.   

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is funding the study through the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) Project. BEES is part of OPRE’s Innovative Strategies for Addressing Employment Barriers Portfolio , which seeks to rigorously evaluate the next generation of employment strategies for people with low incomes, and is partnering with the Social Security Administration on select evaluations.