Rehabilitation of People with Psychiatric Disabilities in Sheltered Workshop in Luxembourg: Employment Facilities as a Social Pillar for Vulnerable Groups

People with mental and psychiatric disabilities are globally and historically the most neglected
and overlooked group in the matter of experienced social exclusion and discrimination at the
labour market. The European Pillar on social rights, recently launched by the European
Commission, underlines the importance of equal opportunities and access to the labour
market for everyone. In regard to this, fair working conditions and active support to
employment should also be provided for people with psychiatric disabilities. Employment for
people with psychiatric problems still remains a problematic issue, reaching an unemployment
rate of about 90% among the most vulnerable groups with the chronical condition such as
psychosis. Insufficient stress resilience, pre-existing scarring effects, socioeconomic
vulnerability coupled to constrained mental health literacy among employers are some of the
main barriers that people with psychiatric disabilities may face as they move towards and into
their work. In addition, the fluctuating mental state of a person linked to specificity and
heterogeneous evolutions of mental illness has led to rethinking classical models of support,
challenging new concepts used until now for physical or sensory disabilities. Initially created
to welcome people out of psychiatry, emerging from the acute phase of the illness towards
the resocialisation and professional adjustment, sheltered workshop for persons with
psychiatric disabilities nowadays promotes new environment, such as supported &
therapeutic, i.e. proximity-orientated and individually adapted to the abilities of the person. In
order to enhance inclusion by sustainable employment, services have to be proactive, provide
gateways to employment, foster psychosocial recovery of the people during their stay and
assist them in managing their mental health problems after their placement. Our presentation
stresses the Luxembourgish ATP-Model which offers an individual service for people with
psychiatric problems; to cope with labour market related challenges and in-situ job coaching
perspectives. However, this requires rethinking the traditional assignment of social work.