Not Just Any Old Job: a Danish initiative to get people into work

Abstract

Appropriate Job Re‐entering (Danish abbreviation: VAP) was a project initiated by the county of Vejle in Denmark and part‐funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). It aimed to qualify people with a psychiatric diagnosis on a personal, social and professional level to re‐enter the job market following one or more periods of hospitalization and medical care. It also represented a new approach of psychiatric rehabilitation in Denmark, as it did not focus on manual but on intellectual work. The project had ten participants and ran for a year during which participants were offered job‐training of varying length in private and public firms tailored to match their qualifications and personal capacity on the one hand and the needs of the companies on the other. VAP has now been succeeded by a similar project, called the Freno Group, starting this year. This is also part‐funded by ESF and following the same principle. What is new is that the Group will do subcontracting for other firms as they aim at becoming a permanent workplace for people with mental health problems. One of the most important results of the project is that they have demonstrated that people with a diagnosis of mental illness are able to do work which demands a high level of competence.

Citation

Engelholm, B. (1999), "Not Just Any Old Job: a Danish initiative to get people into work", A Life in the Day, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 11-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/13666282199900013