We live in a day and age in which many fields come together to define
new ones, and out of these newly defined areas come innovative
practices, and emergent ways of thinking. The Sourcebook on
Rehabilitation and Mental Health Practice documents one of these new
fields, one formed by the coalescence of rehabilitative and mental
health services and employment. Only recently have human service
practitioners, policy makers, and administrators recognized that there
is a growing synergy among these areas once separated by great gulfs of
differences in culture, perspectives and values, and technologies. It is
not happenstance that rehabilitation, mental health, and employment are
becoming increasingly integrated in contemporary human services. There
is considerable interest in work in contemporary society although
different values and perspectives mediate this interest. For people with
disabilities, an interest in work often comes from deep frustration--
from not having ready access to work, and from not having enough of it
to facilitate an acce- able quality of life or independent living. Some
people find work to be a source of problems that negatively affects
their functioning. They find the workplace stressful and unsupportive,
or they feel that work exacts too much from them, reducing their quality
of life and setting into motion numerous negative personal effects
(Beck, 2000).