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    Individual placement and support for vocational recovery in first-episode psychosis: randomised controlled trial
    Killackey, E ; Allott, K ; Jackson, HJ ; Scutella, R ; Tseng, Y-P ; Borland, J ; Proffitt, T-M ; Hunt, S ; Kay-Lambkin, F ; Chinnery, G ; Baksheev, G ; Alvarez-Jimenez, M ; McGorry, PD ; Cotton, SM (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
    BACKGROUND: High unemployment is a hallmark of psychotic illness. Individual placement and support (IPS) may be effective at assisting the vocational recoveries of young people with first-episode psychosis (FEP).AimsTo examine the effectiveness of IPS at assisting young people with FEP to gain employment (Australian and Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12608000094370). METHOD: Young people with FEP (n = 146) who were interested in vocational recovery were randomised using computer-generated random permuted blocks on a 1:1 ratio to: (a) 6 months of IPS in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) or (b) TAU alone. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 6 months (end of intervention), 12 months and 18 months post-baseline by research assistants who were masked to the treatment allocations. RESULTS: At the end of the intervention the IPS group had a significantly higher rate of having been employed (71.2%) than the TAU group (48.0%), odds ratio 3.40 (95% CI 1.17-9.91, z = 2.25, P = 0.025). However, this difference was not seen at 12- and 18-month follow-up points. There was no difference at any time point on educational outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest trial to our knowledge on the effectiveness of IPS in FEP. The IPS group achieved a very high employment rate during the 6 months of the intervention. However, the advantage of IPS was not maintained in the long term. This seems to be related more to an unusually high rate of employment being achieved in the control group rather than a gross reduction in employment among the IPS group.Declaration of interestNone.
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    Changing the Life Trajectories of Australia's Most Vulnerable Children - Report No. 2 The first twelve months in the Early Years Education Program: An initial assessment of the impact on children and their primary caregivers
    Tseng, Y ; Jordan, B ; Borland, J ; Coombs, N ; Cotter, K ; Hill, A ; Kennedy, A (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, 2018)
    This report presents initial findings on the impact on children and their primary caregivers after twelve months of enrollment in the Early Years Education Program (EYEP). EYEP is a model of early years care and education targeted at the particular needs of children who are exposed to significant family stress and social disadvantage. Children who participate in EYEP are offered three years of care and education (50 weeks per year, five hours per day each week). Key features of EYEP are high staff/child ratios, qualified and experienced staff, an infant mental health consultant in the team and a rigorously developed curriculum. A relationship-based pedagogy is used to ensure that children are ready for learning. The ultimate objective of EYEP is to ensure that at-risk and vulnerable children realise their full potential and arrive at school developmentally and educationally equal to their peers. The impact of EYEP is being evaluated through a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) as part of the Early Years Education Research Program (EYERP); otherwise referred to in this report as the ‘EYEP trial’. Children for whom consent was given to participate in the EYEP trial were randomly assigned into either an intervention group who were enrolled in EYEP or to a control group. Estimates of the impact of EYEP on children and their primary caregivers are derived from comparisons of outcomes between the intervention group and the control group. Measurement of outcomes described in this report took place twelve months after entry to the trial.