The Vocational Specialists are integrated into the headspace team and will provide career development advice and vocational and employment assistance to young people with mental illness up to the age of 25 years.

The vocational specialists will work with the evaluation consultant and fidelity reviewer to ensure fidelity of the IPS model is met appropriately. All IPS services will subscribe to a set of eight core Practice Principles that underpin delivery of support to participants.

These are:

1. Focus on Competitive Employment: IPS services are committed to competitive employment as an attainable goal for participants with mental illness seeking employment.
2. Eligibility Based on Participants Choice: Participants are not excluded from the IPS service on the basis of readiness, diagnoses, symptoms, substance use history, psychiatric hospitalisations, level of disability, or legal system involvement.
3. Integration of Rehabilitation and Mental Health Services: The IPS model is based on a close integration of mental health treatment teams, including clinical care.
4. Attention to Participant Preferences: Services are based on participant’s preferences and choices, rather than providers’ judgments.
5. Personalised Benefits Counselling: Vocational specialists help participants obtain personalised, understandable, and accurate information about their government entitlements. (Fear of losing benefits is a major barrier to employment)
6. Rapid Job Search: The IPS model is based on a rapid job search approach to help participants obtain jobs directly, rather than providing lengthy pre-employment assessment, training, and counselling.
7. Systematic Job Development: Vocational specialists build an employer network based on participants’ interests, developing relationships and partnerships with local employers.
8. Time-Unlimited and Individualised Support: Follow-along supports are individualised and are continued for as long as the participant wants and needs the support.

Fidelity reviewers from IPS Works (see ipsworks.waamh.org.au for more detailed information) assess the quality of IPS implementation and service delivery whilst undertaking a series of observations, interviews and document reviews.

The fidelity model is outlined in the ANZ Supported employment fidelity scape (supported-employment-fidelity-scale.pdf (waamh.org.au)