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Rehabilitation, services and employment – practices enabling societal inclusion of people who receive rehabilitation allowance for young persons

In the project, we explore ways to support and enable social inclusion and employment of young recoverees.

In particular, we study the experiences of young adults who receive or have received rehabilitation allowance for young persons (RAYP), provided by Kela, due to mental and behavioral disorders. The RAYP is a conditional cash transfer that young people receive in return for participating in vocational rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation usually takes place in schools.

The purpose of the RAYP is to support its recipients’ ability to work and enable them to find employment. However, mental disorders are increasingly the cause of disability pensions–especially in the case of young adults. In addition to unemployment, recoverees also experience economic scarcity and cultural stigma. As mental disorders are a multidimensional societal challenge, social policies that take into account the mental well-being of all citizens are needed in addition to individual care. To this end, we also consider how different services could support young people more comprehensively and how the labor market could be developed to be more inclusive for recoverees and people with partial work capacity.

What we do?

Our aim is to understand the RAYP and rehabilitation more broadly. We have interviewed young adults who receive and have received RAYP, professionals working with young people (e.g. therapists, social workers, psychiatrists and teachers) as well as employers (e.g. supervisors and recruiters). Qualitative research makes it possible to examine young people’s own perceptions and experiences, as well as practical and everyday knowledge of professionals and employers.

The results of the study provide ways to develop the RAYP as well as other rehabilitation related services and income transfers. This will enable young people to find employment and, more generally, to support their social inclusion in the future.

Researchers
Liisa Häikiö (PI), Jarkko Salminen, Henna Luoma-Halkola