Community employment, facility-based work, and day activities for working age people with intellectual and developmental disability

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) participate in a variety of day/employment activities including community-based activities and work and facility-based activities and work. These different activities have important implications for community inclusion and economic independence. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to use the National Core Indicators-In person Survey (NCI-IPS) to explore the prevalence of day/employment activities for adult service users with IDD and to determine what personal and environmental factors are related to each type of activity. METHODS: The data analyzed in this study come from the 2018-19 National Core Indicators (NCI), a survey of adult services users with IDD in the U.S. We used descriptive statistics and multinominal logistic regression to explore how the various covariates differentially relate to the four day/employment activity types. RESULTS: A variety of personal and environmental characteristics were associated with each type of activity. Characteristics related to equity (e.g., race and gender) and support needs (e.g., mental health) were associated with less community-based work. CONCLUSIONS: This study was the first, to our knowledge, to describe the complexity of day/employment activities individuals with IDD experience in terms of prevalence and overlap. Further, this study provides evidence that certain profiles are leading to different experiences and that services do impact service users employment opportunities.