An important part of the iFEVR/iphYs meeting are the bolts from the blue presentations. These are 5 minute presentations consisting of one title slide and two content slides. They allow the rest of the community to hear about new innovations in practice, research that might not be widely known, or adaptations that have had to be made to make things work in a local context.

The first of the iFEVR bolts from the blue presentations in Boston was by David Erickson who was presenting results of a RCT of IPS that was conducted in the Fraser North EI team in British Columbia, Canada.

David’s presentation can be found here. 

As you can see from the presentation, the beneficial effect of IPS continued over time.

A member of the audience submitted a question for David. The question was: Did you consider using NEET metrics for activity level engagement?

David responded:

No, we didn’t consider using NEET metrics.  While activity levels are hugely important, our aim in this project was to assess the contribution of IPS support to employment outcomes.  As metrics of employment, we used the standard two measures, i.e. procuring a competitive job, and number of days worked.  The choice of these measures was consistent with what these clients wanted, i.e. to work.  We certainly have other clients with different goals that would be more meaningful to them, e.g. to return to school, or be more active in areas other than vocation.

If you would like to ask David other questions about the study or the IPS work happeing in Fraser North, he is happy to be contacted on David.Erickson@FraserHealth.ca