ABSTRACT
The job retention service established by the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust was the first service in the UK to focus on secondary prevention; in other words, getting people at risk of losing their jobs as a result of mental health problems off the slippery slope that for too many leads to long-term unemployment. Funding provided by the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions supported both the development of the project and an evaluation carried out during the first year of its operation. Sixteen clients with whom the job retention team had completed or almost completed work were invited to take part in an interview exploring their views about the service provided and 13 agreed. With the clients’ permission, five employers were also interviewed and six GPs took part in a group discussion. This chapter describes the clients and the interventions they received from the job retention team.
