中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: This study explores the variables predicting employment status among psychiatric patients in Taiwan. Methods: Psychiatric patients age 15-64 responded to mailed surveys or personal interviews. Four hundred fifty-eight valid surveys were collected. Frequency distribution, chi-square, t-test, logistic regression and stepwise regression analyses were applied to identify relating and predicting variables of psychiatric patients' employment status. Results: Four factors significantly correlated with employment: age, educational level, degree of psychotic severity, and enrollment in community rehabilitation services. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that the older the psychiatric patient, the greater the disadvantage for employment. Probability of employment decreased 0.953 per year of age. Compared to those who had not enrolled in community rehabilitation services, those who had were 5.51 times more likely to be employed. Conclusions: Enrollment in community rehabilitation services was the most important predictor of psychiatric patents' employment.