Work Accommodations in Canadian Social Firms: Supervisors’ and Workers’ Perspectives
Publication: Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
25 July 2019
Abstract
Social firms (SFs) are an appealing model for people with a mental health condition who are having difficulties maintaining their employment in a competitive labour market. The goal of this study is to compare the availability of work accommodations in two types of Canadian SFs, by interviewing supervisors working in adapted enterprises and consumer/survivor-run businesses, and by obtaining the perceptions of the workers with a mental health condition regarding the usefulness of these accommodations. Results indicate accommodations in both types of SFs are readily available and useful. A significant difference between the two types of SFs is the availability of a job coach whose presence workers found useful in adapted enterprises. Natural supports from stakeholders (e.g., supervisors, job coach) are important for work sustainability.
Résumé
Le modèle de l’entreprise sociale (ES) peut s’avérer attrayant pour les personnes confrontées à un problème de santé mentale qui éprouvent de la difficulté à conserver leur emploi dans le marché du travail ordinaire. L’objectif de cette étude est de comparer l’accessibilité des mesures d’accommodement de travail dans deux types d’ES canadiennes en interviewant les superviseurs immédiats d’entreprises adaptées et d’entreprises dirigées par des consommateurs/survivants et en recueillant l’avis de travailleurs aux prises avec un problème de santé mentale sur le caractère utile des mesures d’accommodement. Les résultats de l’étude démontrent que dans les deux types d’ES les mesures d’accommodement sont facilement accessibles et utiles. Une différence significative entre les deux types d’ES tient de la disponibilité d’un formateur en milieu de travail dont la présence est jugée utile dans les entreprises adaptées. Le soutien naturel offert par les intervenants (ex. les superviseurs immédiats, les formateurs en milieu de travail) est d’une importance certaine pour un maintien en emploi durable.
Formats available
You can view the full content in the following formats:
References
Alter, K. (2010). Social Enterprise Typology. Portland, Oregon: Virtue Ventures.
Borzaga, C. (1998). L’impressionnant développement des coopératives sociales. In J. Defourny, L. Favreau & J. Laville (Eds.), Insertion et nouvelle économie sociale: un bilan international (p. 99–126). Paris: Desclée de Brouwer.
Brouard F., McMurtry J., and Vieta M. 2015 Social enterprise models in Canada-Ontario Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research 6 1 63
Buhariwala P., Wilton R., and Evans J. 2015 Social enterprises as enabling workplaces for people with psychiatric disabilities Disability & Society 30 6 865 -879
Canadian Mental Health Association - Ontario Division. (2005). Consumer/survivor initiatives: Impact, outcomes and effectiveness. Ontario: Canadian Mental Health Association - Ontario Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addiction Programs, Ontario Peer Development Initiative.
Canadian Mental Health Association. (2008). A framework for action by the Canadian Mental Health Association. Retrived from https://cmha.ca/documents/mental-health-promotion-a-framework-for-action in 2018
Church, K. (2001). Learning to walk between worlds: Informal learning in psychiatric survivor businesses: A retrospective reading of research process and outcomes: 1993–1999. A working paper of the Network for New Approaches to Lifelong Learning.
Church, K. (2006). Consumer-run businesses. In G. Albrecht (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Church, K., Shragge, E., Fontan, J.-M., & Ng, R. (2008). While no one is watching: Learning in social action among people who are excluded from the labour market. In K. Church, N. Bascia, & E. Shragge (Eds.), Learning through community: Exploring participatory practices (pp. 97–116). Springer Science & Business Media B.V.
Clark R. E. 1995 Creating work opportunities for people with severe mental illness (Response to ‘The economic advancement of the mentally ill in the community’) Community Mental Health Journal 31 4 397 -401
Corbière M., Brouwers E., Lanctôt N., and van Weeghel J. 2014 Employment specialist competencies for supported employment programs Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation 24 3 484 -497
Corbière M. and Lecomte T. 2009 Vocational services offered to people with severe mental illness Journal of Mental Health 18 1 38 -50
Corbière, M., Lecomte, T., & Lanctôt, N. (2011). Services de réintégration au travail et interventions ponctuelles en réadaptation dédiés aux personnes avec un trouble mental grave. In M. Corbière & M.-J. Durand (Eds.), Du trouble mental à l’incapacité au travail. Une perspective transdisciplinaire qui vise à mieux saisir cette problématique et à offrir des pistes d’intervention (pp. 253–280). Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec (PUQ).
Corbière M., Lecomte T., Reinharz D., Kirsh B., Goering P., Menear M., Berbiche D., Genest K., and Goldner E. 2017 Predictors of acquisition of competitive employment for people enrolled in supported employment programs Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 205 4 275 -282
Corbière M., Villotti P., Lecomte T., Bond G. R., Lesage A., and Goldner E. M. 2014 Work accommodations and natural supports for maintaining employment Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 37 2 90 -98
Corbière M., Villotti P., Toth K., and Waghorn G. 2014 La divulgation du trouble mental et les mesures d’accommodements: Deux notions pour comprendre le maintien en emploi de personnes aux prises avec un trouble mental grave L’Encéphale 40 S2 S91 -S102
Coutu, M.-A., Lépine, I., & Jutras, J. (2011). Guide de présentation du Programme de subventions aux entreprises adaptées: Direction régionale d’Emploi-Québec du Centre-du-Québec.
Defourny J. and Nyssens M. 2010 Conceptions of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States: Convergences and divergences Journal of Social Entrepreneurship 1 1 32 -53
Desplat, C., Earle, T., & Girard, W. (2016). L’intégration socioprofessionnelle des personnes ayant des incapacités. Québec: Université Laval.
Drake R. E. and Bond G. R. 2014 Introduction to the special issue on individual placement and support Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 37 76 -78
Drake, R. E., Bond, G. R., & Becker, D. (2012). Individual placement and support: An evidence based approach to supported employment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gates, L. B., & Akabas, S. H. (2011). Inclusion of people with mental health disabilities into the workplace: Accommodation as a social process. In I. Z. Schultz & S. E. Rogers (Eds.), Work accommodation and retention in mental health (pp. 375–391). New York: Springer.
Gilbert E., Marwaha S., Milton A., Johnson S., Morant N, Parsons N., Fisher A., Singh S., and Cunliffe D. 2013 Social firms as a means of vocational recovery for people with mental illness: A UK survey BMC Health Services Research 13 1 270
Glover C. M. and Frounfelker R. L. 2013 Competencies of more and less successful employment specialists Community Mental Health Journal 49 3 311 -316
Gold P. B., Oire S. N., Fabian E. S., and Wewiorski N. J. 2012 Negotiating reasonable workplace accommodations: Perspectives of employers, employees with disabilities, and rehabilitation service providers Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 37 1 25 -37
Kirsh B., Krupa T., Cockburn L., and Gewurtz R. 2007 Work initiatives for persons with severe mental illnesses in Canada: A decade of development Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health 25 2 173 -191
Krupa T. 1998 The consumer run business: People with psychiatric disabilities as entrepreneurs Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation 11 3 -10
Krupa, T. (2006). Affirmative businesses. In G. Albrecht (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lanctôt N., Corbière M., and Durand M.-J. 2012 Job tenure and quality of work life of people with psychiatric disabilities working in social enterprises Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 37 1 39 -48
Loisel, P., & Corbière, M. (2011). Compétences requises chez l’intervenant qui facilite le retour ou la réinsertion au travail de personnes à risque d’une incapacité prolongée. In M. Corbière and Marie-José Durand (Eds), Du trouble mental à l’incapacité au travail: Une perspective transdisciplinaire qui vise à mieux saisir cette problématique et à offrir des pistes d’intervention (pp. 281–306). Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec (PUQ).
Lysaght, R., & Krupa, T. (2011). Social business: Advancing the viability of a model for economic and occupational justice for people with disabilities, Kingston: School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen’s University. Kingston Ontario: Queen’s University.
Mandiberg J. M. 2016 Social Enterprise in Mental Health: An Overview Journal of Policy Practice 15 1–2 5 -24
McKnight, J. (1995). The careless society: Community and its counterfeits. New York: Basic Books.
Menear M., Reinharz D., Corbière M., Houle N., Lanctôt N., Goering P., Goldner E.-M., Kirsh B., and Lecomte T. 2011 Organizational analysis of Canadidan supported employment programs for people with psychiatric disabilities Social Science and Medicine 72 1028 -1035
Milton A., Parsons N., Morant N., Gilbert E., Johnson S., Fisher A., Singh S., Cunliffe D., and Marwaha S. 2015 The clinical profile of employees with mental health problems working in social firms in the UK Journal of Mental Health 24 4 242 -248
Mueser K. and McGurk S. 2014 Supported employment for persons with serious mental illness: Current status and future directions L’Encéphale 40 2 S45 -S56
Nelson G., Ochocka J., Janzen R., and Trainor J. 2006 A longitudinal study of mental health consumer/survivor initiatives: Part 1—Literature review and overview of the study Journal of Community Psychology 34 3 247 -260
Oire, S. N. (2013). Employers use of workplace reasonable accommodations for retaining employees with disabilities. College Park, MD: University of Maryland.
Paluch T., Fossey E., and Harvey C. 2012 Social firms: Building cross-sectoral partnerships to create employment opportunity and supportive workplaces for people with mental illness Work 43 1 63 -75
Schultz, I. Z., Duplassie, D., Hanson, D. B., & Winter, A. (2011). Systemic barriers and facilitators to job accommodations in mental health: Experts’ consensus. In I. Z. Schultz & S. E. Rogers (Eds.), Work accommodation and retention in mental health (pp. 353–372). New York: Springer.
Schultz, I. Z., Krupa, T., & Winter, A. (2012). Organizational aspects of work accommodation and retention in mental health. In R. J. Gatchel & I. Z. Schultz (dir.), Handbook of occupational health and wellness (pp. 423–439). New York: Springer.
Stuart H. 2006 Mental illness and employment discrimination Current Opinion in Psychiatry 19 5 522 -526
Suijkerbuijk Y. B., Schaafsma F. G., van Mechelen J., Ojajärvi A., Corbière M., and Anema J. R. 2017 Interventions for obtaining and maintaining employment in adults with severe mental illness, a network meta-analysis (Review) The Cochrane Library
Trainor J., Shepherd M., Boydell K. M., Leff A., and Crawford E. 1997 Beyond the service paradigm: The impact and implications of consumer/survivor initiatives Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 21 2 132 -140
Trainor J. and Tremblay J. 1992 Consumer/survivor businesses in Ontario: Challenging the rehabilitation model Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health 11 2 65 -71
Villotti P., Corbière M., Fossey E., Fraccaroli F., Lecomte T., and Harvey C. 2017 Work accommodations and natural supports for employees with severe mental illness in social businesses: An international comparison Community Mental Health Journal 53 7 864 -870
Villotti P., Zaniboni S., and Fraccaroli F. 2014 Les entreprises à économie sociale en Italie L’Encéphale 40 S57 -S65
Warner R. and Mandiberg J. 2006 An update on affirmative businesses or social firms for people with mental illness Psychiatric Services 57 10 1488 -1492
Williams A., Fossey E., Corbière M., Paluch T., and Harvey C. 2016 Work participation for people with severe mental ilnesses: An integrative review of factors impacting job tenure Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 63 2 65 -85
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
Volume 38 • Number 1 • January 2019
Pages: 37 - 56
History
Version of record online: 25 July 2019
Key Words
Mots-clés
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Other Metrics
Citations
Cite As
Marc Corbière, Patrizia Villotti, Carolyn S. Dewa, Hélène Sultan-Taïeb, Franco Fraccaroli, Sara Zaniboni, Marie-José Durand, and Tania Lecomte. 2019. Work Accommodations in Canadian Social Firms: Supervisors’ and Workers’ Perspectives. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health.
38(1): 37-56. https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2018-026
Export Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
There are no citations for this item
View Options
View options
Get Access
Login options
Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Subscribe
Click on the button below to subscribe to Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
