Participant Engagement in Supported Employment: A Systematic Scoping Review.
Mariya Khoronzhevych, Tatiana Maximova-Mentzoni, Erika Gubrium and 1 others
PMID 34086158WHAT IT FOUND
Supported employment engagement relies on three linked elements: the provider empowering the participant, the participant making self-determined choices, and a collaborative working alliance.
Engagement is a continuous process throughout the intervention, not a one-time state achieved at the start.
Key findings
01Participant engagement in supported employment is conceptualised through three interrelated themes: expression of self-determined choice, collaboration/creating a working alliance, and empowerment.
02Engagement is defined as an active, multifaceted process involving empowerment, self-determined informed choice, and collaboration with practitioners, rather than a static end-state.
03Providers must actively empower participants through information and choice to enable self-determined actions; without this empowerment, the service becomes provider-driven and genuine collaboration is unlikely.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The review did not include grey literature, which may have missed local or regional conceptualisations of engagement. Only English-language studies were included, limiting generalisability to non-English speaking countries. Most included studies focused on participants' standpoints, with few capturing practitioner or other stakeholder perspectives. The review synthesised concepts and definitions but did not measure the effect of these engagement strategies on employment outcomes.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Norges Forskningsråd, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, and OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this review as evidence that these engagement strategies improve employment outcomes. The study synthesised how engagement is defined and conceptualised in the literature but did not analyse effectiveness data or test the impact of these factors on client success.