Effect of supported employment on the vocational outcomes of persons with traumatic brain injury.

Five adults with severe traumatic brain injury joined a community job hunt.

A vocational specialist used the individual placement model: find a real job first, then train on site.

The researchers tracked hours worked, wages, and any problem behavior that cropped up at work.

Every participant landed a competitive job after the program started.

Specialists logged about 340 hours of support per person—roughly eight full work weeks.

On-the-job coaching also stopped disruptive behavior before it cost the worker the position.

Wehman et al. (2014) and Iwanaga et al. (2025) later showed the same model helps youth with intellectual disability and autism.

Wehman et al. (2017) and Schroeder et al. (2014) pushed the idea further, adding ABA layers inside Project SEARCH; their RCTs hit 90 % employment, far above the 1989 TBI case series.

The 1989 quasi-experiments by J et al. and P et al. agree: individual beats group placements, and keeping a job past six months needs a follow-up plan plus collateral skills training.

Together the papers form a ladder: first prove it works for TBI, then refine it for other diagnoses, then pack it with extra supports for even stronger results.

If you serve adults with brain injury, know that one-to-one supported employment can end in a real paycheck.

Budget for heavy front-end hours and plan to coach both job skills and behavior on the shop floor.

The same blueprint, tweaked for autism or IDD, now hits 80-90 % success—so your TBI data still guide best practice today.