Authors (including presenting author) :
CHUNG KC(1), CHAN YLD(1), LAU WL(1), CHAN SM(1), CHAN YHJ(1), TANG YML(1), NG PK(1), LI MC(1), SO SH(1), HUNG CW(1), YIP PY(1), LEUNG NC(1), PANG YS(1), CHAN KY(1), CHEN SY(1), LEUNG HC(1), LEUNG PC(1), CHENG S(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Kowloon Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Vocational counselling
Keyword 2: :
Occupational therapy
Keyword 3: :
work rehabilitation
Keyword 4: :
Mental health
Keyword 5: :
Work readiness
Introduction :
Transition from adolescence to early adulthood is a crucial period for establishing work role, yet young People-In-Recovery (PIR) aged 15-25 often encounter challenges in work readiness and return-to-employment due to lack of motivation, insufficient information, limited self-awareness and functional deterioration after relapse. Prolonged unemployment in adulthood among young PIR contributes to higher rate of relapse in mental illness. Vocational counselling in Occupational Therapy work rehabilitation service aimed at enhancing community work engagement and addresses career uncertainty among unemployed PIR by offering information and guidance in career planning
Literatures suggest that structured career planning can foster employability and work readiness when they discharge to the community. Therefore, a vocational guide for structured vocational counselling is developed to facilitate career planning and enhance work readiness among young PIR.
Objectives :
To develop and evaluate effectiveness of vocational guide for Occupational Therapists (OT) to deliver structured vocational counselling to young PIR to facilitate career planning and enhance work readiness.
Methodology :
Literature review on vocational counselling was conducted. A vocational guide with 12 pages was designed based on Career Decision-making Process and Theory of Vocational Choice with input from experienced OT. A training session was given to OT. The effectiveness of the guide is evaluated in quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. Subjects aged 15-25 are recruited from PIR receiving Occupational Therapy service in psychiatric in-patient units. Three parameters were measured before and after the counselling: The Lam Assessment on Stages of Employment Readiness - Chinese version (C-LASER), The Chinese Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (CSWEMWBS) and (3) a self-designed self-efficacy survey. Data were analyzed with Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test.
Result & Outcome :
Twelve participants were recruited. Significant improvements were found in C-LASER action stage score (p-value=0.009), CSWEMWBS (p-value=0.012) and eight items in self-designed self-efficacy survey, including Return-to-work (p-value=0.033), Job Hunting (p-value =0.011), Career Exploration (p-value=0.047), Career Planning (p-value=0.050), Goal Formulation (p-value=0.010), Job Information Access (p-value=0.006), Interest-based Job Matching (p-value=0.011) and Interest-based Career Decision-making (p-value=0.033). Structured vocational counseling effectively enhances work readiness, fostering actionable commitment, improving mental well-being, and self-efficacy in career process among young PIR.
