Impact of Work Incentives Benefits Counseling on Employment Outcomes of Social Security Beneficiaries with Depression and Other Mood Disorders: A Case Control Study

Background/Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of work incentives benefits counseling (WIBC) on employment outcomes of state vocational rehabilitation clients with depressive and other mood disorders (mood disorders) who are Social Security beneficiaries. Method Data for this study were extracted from the program year 2018 (PY 2018) Rehabilitation Service Administration Case Service Report (RSA-911) database. Mahalanobis distance matching, a method of matching observations for bias reduction in observational studies, was used to match vocational rehabilitation clients with mood disorders who received WIBC (i.e., the treatment group) with those who did not receive WIBC (i.e., the control group). Chi-square tests and t -tests were used to examine the effect of WIBC on employment outcome and quality of employment. Results Clients with mood disorders who received WIBC as a vocational rehabilitation intervention were more likely to achieve gainful employment than those who did not receive WIBC. However, there was no difference between the WIBC group and the no-WIBC group on indicators of quality employment. Conclusion The present study validated the effectiveness of WIBC as a vocational rehabilitation intervention that can be used to increase employment outcomes for vocational rehabilitation clients with mood disorders.