Behavioural plasticity and mental health outcomes for long-term unemployed attending occupational training programmes

This paper reports on immediate and delayed mental health outcomes for a group of long-term unemployed individuals who attended occupational skills/personal development training courses. Results for participants were compared with a waiting-list control group. Outcomes investigated were well-being (depression, psychological distress, self-esteem, life-satisfaction, guilt, anger, helplessness), attitude to work (employment expectations, employment commitment, employ ment value) and life-situation (social support, financial strain, use of community resources). Immediate benefits were identified for five of the well-being and one attitude-to-work variables. Few gains persisted at follow-up. Behavioural plasticity effects for well-being and attitude-to-work variables were identified by comparing outcomes for participants who had lower scores prior to the course with participants who reported higher scores at thai dme.