Predictors of post-hospital employment status for persons with psychiatricdisability: Perceptions of rehabilitation health professionals in Hong Kong

Post-hospital employment status is an important outcome measure for psychia tric rehabilitation. This paper describes a survey of rehabilitation health professionals irt a psychiatric hospital in Dong Kong (a Special Administr ative Region of china) to identify important predictors of employment outco me for persons with psychiatric disability. An exploratory factor analysis showed that five factors (social-vocational competence, psychosocial suppor t, medical history, work history and demographic characteristics) accounted for 55% of the total variance. Descriptive statistics of the factor-based scores indicated that the social-vocational competence and work history fac tors were perceived as the most important predictors by rehabilitation heal th professionals in Dong Kong. This finding is consistent with research rep orted in the psychiatric rehabilitation literature. However the finding reg arding medical history and demographic characteristics are different from t he Western literature. Implications for clinical practice and further resea rch are discussed.