‘Yes, I’ve got the job, but my challenge is keeping the job’: an evaluation of a new pathway to open employment to meet the needs of people with acquired brain injury in Australia

Em Bould; Libby Callaway; Natasha K. Brusco

doi:10.1071/IB23010

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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‘Yes, I’ve got the job, but my challenge is keeping the job’: an evaluation of a new pathway to open employment to meet the needs of people with acquired brain injury in Australia

Em Bould

^A ^* , Libby Callaway

^B and Natasha K. Brusco

^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

^B Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre, Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

^C Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

^* Correspondence to: em.bould@monash.edu

Brain Impairment 24(2) 395-411 https://doi.org/10.1017/BrImp.2022.6

Submitted: 5 September 2021 Accepted: 20 March 2022 Published: 30 May 2022

© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background and objectives:

In Australia, people with disability continue to experience low employment rates (48%), compared to the national average (79%), and employment is even lower (30%) for people with acquired brain injury (ABI). This paper evaluates a pilot study of a new mainstream employment pathway following ABI, called Employment CoLab.

Method:

Employment CoLab was piloted across multiple industries using a mix of reasonable employer adjustments, insurance-funded supports and/or access to capacity-building supports. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with four stakeholders; (1) Employees with ABI (n = 5, age 31–49 years, time since injury M(R) = 11(4–26) years); (2) Employers/co-workers (n = 3); (3) Allied health professionals/vocational providers (n = 4); and (4) Injury insurance funders who hold portfolio responsibility for disability employment (n = 5). An explorative economic evaluation was also conducted to compare the cost to the funder for Employment CoLab compared to traditional employment pathways.

Results:

Employment CoLab offered a new approach for people with ABI to gain and sustain open employment. Four major themes were identified from participant interviews: valuing employment and diversity; barriers to mainstream employment; reflections on being employed; and being supported over time. The economic evaluation was unable to detect if the pathway was, or was not, less costly when compared to traditional employment pathways.

Conclusions:

Employment CoLab is a person-centred collaborative approach which, together with effective social disability insurance approaches, has built new opportunities for inclusive mainstream economic participation following ABI.

Keywords: Acquired brain injury, economic participation, employment pathway, economic evaluation.

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