An ethnographic study of vocational rehabilitation for Puerto Rican Americans with severe mental illness

This report outlines some preliminary results of one part of an ethnographic (participant-observation) study of Hispanic (Puerto Rican) clients' experiences of, and responses to, vocational rehabilitation. Nine (of a total of 120 Hispanic clients) randomly assigned to three different vocational rehabilitation interventions participated for 18 months in an intensive ethnographic substudy which examined bow these clients cope with their mental illness in the conte.rt of seeking work, and trying to maintain competitive employment. The experience and expression of mental illness among Puerto Ricans, as well as the manner of their engagement with and their responses to, supported vocational and other therapies are all strongly conditioned by Hispanic sociocultural background and particular economic disadvantage.