The proportion of young people who disappear from the labor market on disability benefits is a very topical problem in Norway. Early withdrawal or exclusion from the labor market entails large costs, both for the individual and for society as a whole. The SEED study is a randomized controlled trial that aims to gain knowledge about different interventions to prevent disability and increase work participation among this important and vulnerable group. The study includes young people aged 18-29 years who are outside education and work, who receive temporary benefits due to various social or health-related problems, and who are intended for "work practice in sheltered employment" at NAV. Participants are randomly allocated to 1 of 2 work-oriented measures: Traditional work-oriented measure in a rehabilitation company, through the measure "Work practice in a sheltered enterprise" (APS) or Supported Employment (SE) at Fretex Western Norway, using the Individual Job Support (IPS) method.

Read more about the study here.

Results:

Articles, “Individual placement and support for young adults at risk of early work disability (the SEED trial). A randomized controlled trial”, deals with data collected using questionnaires at 6 and 12 months. The results show that IPS was more effective than traditional work-oriented interventions for participants in the SEED study, who were young people (18-29 years old) at risk of early disability due to various social and/or health-related problems. While 48% of participants in the IPS group were in regular employment during the follow-up period, only 8% of participants in the control group were in regular employment during the same period.

The study also showed promising results on outcome measures related to health and coping, in favor of IPS.