An exploratory cost-benefit analysis of natural support strategies in the employment of people with severe disabilities

This study presents an exploratory cost-benefit analysis of a supported employment program using natural support strategies to assist workers with severe disabilities in integrated employment settings. The study investigates both the costs and the financial outcomes of this program. Six continuous months of consumer participation at any time between July 1, 1991 and January 21, 1992 was the criterion for inclusion in the study. The analysis employs two cost-benefit models. The first – the primary analysis - assesses the benefits and costs of the program in isolation by assuming there were no opportunity costs associated with a consumer's non-participation in an alternative program. The second model uses data from the first analysis and integrates the opportunity cost of sheltered workshop employment into the computations. The results suggest substantive benefits to participants, the taxpayer, and society for a natural support approach and superiority of this approach over the sheltered workshop model.