Biomedical subjects

Deborah Gioia

Publications and source records attributed to Deborah Gioia.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A contextual study of daily living strategies in neurocognitively impaired adults with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness often recognized as a degenerative neurocognitive condition. For some with the disorder, the impairment is fairly mild, but for others, neurocognitive abilities can be severely compromised. In this study, 5 individuals with schizophrenia had been assessed through a laboratory-based neurocognitive battery as having severe impairment. Their neurocognitive status was unknown to the author, and she was able to observe daily tasks and ask questions about strategies they employed while completing tasks, and analyze the data without preconceptions about their status. This study was guided by notions of ecological validity, which is the comparison between lab tests and real-world functioning. Despite their cognitive deficits, these individuals had remarkable strengths, which included drawing supportive people into their worlds to fulfill their daily tasks. These data contribute to the rehabilitation literature and propose remedies for struggles of daily living when one has schizophrenia.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2005

Career development in schizophrenia: a heuristic framework.

Adults with schizophrenia continue to have poor rates of competitive employment. We have learned how to support individuals in the workplace with supported employment (SE); but have paid limited attention to early vocational identity development, work antecedents, illness characteristics, and career preferences. Vocational identity development is an important and natural condition of human growth for all persons and is well-researched in career counseling. For young adults with schizophrenia, the predictor of positive work outcome with the most evidence has been that working competitively prior to illness leads to better chances for work post-diagnosis. A heuristic framework is proposed to conceptualize how pre-illness vocational development (paid and unpaid) plus life cycle supports can provide direction to the individual in their work recovery.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Rehab rounds: use of the Americans with Disabilities Act by young adults with schizophrenia.

Introduction by the column editors: People with mental illness have consistently identified employment as a strong unmet need, yet only one in five people with schizophrenia has been able to work in full-time competitive employment and less than 50 percent work at all, despite the advent of evidence-based services, such as supported employment (1,2). However, there are compelling developmental, clinical, and economic reasons for people with mental illnesses to pursue competitive employment as they attempt to normalize and reconstruct their lives (3). Even with a mainstreaming ideology that encourages everyone who wants work to seek it, the real challenges are to organize supportive employment services, match people to jobs, and sustain clients in a continuum of work rehabilitation (4). Several Rehab Rounds columns have focused on programs aimed at enhancing the work functioning of people with serious mental disorders by using supported employment (5), increasing work readiness (6), and teaching fundamental workplace skills (7). In this month's column, Deborah Gioia and John S. Brekke describe the impact of the Americans With Disabilities Act on the work experience of young adults with schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Knowledge and use of workplace accommodations and protections by young adults with schizophrenia: a mixed method study.

Employment is an important outcome for individuals with schizophrenia and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a key structural variable designed to favorably influence work. Little is known about how individuals understand and utilize ADA rights. The purpose of this mixed method study was to elicit understanding of the knowledge and use of ADA provisions from 20 persons with schizophrenia who returned to work. Three distinct groups emerged. Group differences suggest that use of ADA provisions may be dependent on individual need and comfort with ADA opportunity.

Adult↗