Integrating Supported Employment and psychosocial services in a Danish municipal context to enhance employment outcomes for young adults with less severe mental health problems

7,6% of Danes between the ages of 15 and 29 (76,600) is not in education, employment, or training. The
Danish municipal job centres have the task of supporting young adults in entering education or
employment. Job centres experience an increasing number of young adults with less severe mental health
problems who need psychosocial support. However, the variety of psychosocial interventions used in the
municipalities differ geographically, and in how they are organised in the local job centres.
The focus of our study is to understand, how psychosocial interventions are organised and integrated with
job support in the job centres. We investigate, caseworkers’ discretionary reasoning when referring to
psychosocial interventions, collaboration with providers, the young adults’ opportunities for active
participation in this process, and how organisational structures affect the perceived quality of the
job/educational and psychosocial support the young adults receive from the job centres.
The project is an intervention study based on a modified version of the Supported Employment
(SE)/Individual Placement and Support (IPS). The empirical data is collected from three Danish job centres
during a 4-years period, whereby qualitative interviews with sites’ management, project coordinators, and
representatives from the psychosocial service providers are conducted.
The study identifies two organisational models; model A describes a close integration between psychosocial
and employment/education services within the job centres, and model B characterizes a parallel nature of
cooperation, where caseworkers refer youth to psychosocial services. Preliminary findings suggest that the
organisational structures play a substantial role in implementing the SE/IPS model.