The Effectiveness of Rehabilitation Interventions on the Employment and Functioning of People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.

The review included only one randomized controlled trial, so most employment findings came from observational studies. Twenty-one of the 38 studies were case studies with one to ten participants, so they describe what happened to small groups rather than prove a treatment works. The included studies used different terms for intellectual disability, including developmental disability, mental retardation and mental disability, which makes comparison difficult. Many reports gave only brief descriptions of interventions and did not clearly state the process, timing, initiator or place of rehabilitation. A meta-analysis of several types of results was complicated by the inclusion of quantitative, qualitative, multimethod and case studies. The summary table rated the evidence for education and job coach outcomes as low or very low.

The work was funded by The Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

Do not conclude that all rehabilitation programmes help people with intellectual disability enter open employment. Sheltered work did not increase open labor market employment, and the positive employment findings were specific to supported work and education with work experience.