Table 1 Study phases: training & service content, participants, and stakeholders

Phase I: Training for peer support workers

1. Organizing 2 focus group sessions to discuss and decide on the curriculum content

• 8 individuals currently participating in supported employment

• 1 psychiatrist

• 2 psychologists

• 1 psychiatric nurse

• 1 social worker

• 1 case manager

• 1 occupational therapist

2. The curriculum includes 12 h each of lecture &practice (2 h in total of lecture & practice per week, for 12 weeks)

Phase II: Extended vocational rehabilitation co-led & assisted by peer support workers

1. Assessing, by using questionnaires, the social support received by service users, their mental health, psychiatric symptoms and functioning, as well as collecting data of earned (weekly) income and working hours by service users before the intervention

• 6 of 8 peer support workers who completed training and decided to proceed to Phase II of the program

• 46 service users currently participating in sheltered or supported employment

• 2 occupational therapists

2. Peer support workers as coleaders to train service users for workplace problem-solving (1.5 h every 2 weeks, 8 sessions in total)

3. Peer support workers as assistants in care skills training (2 h per week, for 16 weeks)

Post-intervention follow-up

1. Assessing, by using questionnaires, the social support received by service users, their mental health, psychiatric symptoms and functioning, as well as collecting data of earned (weekly) income and working hours by service users after the intervention

• 42 service users completed the extended vocational rehabilitation program

• None

Withdrawals:

• 1 service user getting improved skills to care her elderly mother with disability at home

• 1 service user suffering acute psychosis

• 2 service users failing to meet the threshold of attendance rate of 80%