When a person with a serious mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis is using Evidence Based Supported Education services there are services and supports available to help them reach their educational goals. Supported Education is designed to assist people in receiving post-secondary education and training in the community instead of in a segregated setting.

Supported Education can assist people with a serious mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis set educational goals, find barriers that might cause them problems or make them want to quit, and make a plan to assist them. Supported Education also assists a person by connecting them to other community resources or programs that can help the person succeed.

People who have a mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis or substance abuse disorder are more likely to leave school in both secondary and post-secondary education. Supported Education is designed to help people with a serious mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis to overcome the barriers that can cause an individual to leave early.

In 2005 Carol Mowbray, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan, did a study reviewing the benefits of Supported Education. It was found that Supported Education reduced hospitalization. Other prior studies also bore out this finding. The Supported Education study found that people using Supported Education were satisfied, very satisfied or mostly satisfied with Supported Education, and had higher levels of engagement in the community and in their lives. They also found the group of people using Supported Education had higher levels of satisfaction than the control group.