Integrated supported employment plus cognitive remediation training for people with schizophrenia.

Helping people with schizophrenia to gain competitive employment is a key to improving their quality of life and facilitating their recovery.1 Through a combination of individual placement and support, work-related social skills training, and cognitive remediation training (CRT), our earlier studies demonstrated that 78.8% of people with severe mental illness succeeded in getting competitive employment; the longest job tenure was 24 weeks using the integrated supported employment (ISE) model that combines individual placement and support and work-related social skills training.2 ISE outperformed other vocational rehabilitation services in Hong Kong. Cognitive ability is a predictor of employment outcomes including work success, skills acquisition, and independent living among those with severe mental illness.3 This study aimed to test whether helping people with schizophrenia to restore their neurocognitive functions by CRT enhances the effects of ISE programme. We hypothesised that better vocational and clinical outcomes would be achieved with this model that combines three evidence-based rehabilitation components.