All five authors work for the South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust and are actively involved in the trusts individual placement and support programme. Miles Rinaldi is the trusts Vocational Services Manager (Vocational Services, Main Administration Building, Springfield University Hospital, 61 Glenburnie Road, London SW17 7DJ, UK. Email: Miles.Rinaldi{at}swlstg-tr.nhs.uk). Rachel Perkins is the Director of Quality Assurance and User and Carer Experience, Edmund Glynn is Lead Employment Specialist for Kingston upon Thames, Tatiana Montibeller is Lead Employment Specialist for the London borough of Merton, Mark Clenaghan is Service Director for Merton and Joan Rutherford is Associate Medical Director and a consultant psychiatrist in Kingston upon Thames. evidence-based practice in vocational services (Department of Health, 2006).
Vocational rehabilitation for people with severe mental health problems is poorly developed in the UK. Although there is a clear evidence base indicating the effectiveness of approaches to helping people with severe mental health problems gain and retain employment there is generally a lack of awareness of this evidence. As a result there has been a lack of implementation within routine clinical practice of the most effective approaches to improving employment outcomes for such individuals.