The main goal of the Vocational Placement Project of the Rutgers Medical School Community Mental Health Center (New Jersey) is to investigate ways to improve vocational rehabilitation and educational programs for the chronically mentally ill. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate a pilot vocational rehabilitation program to determine if there was a difference in the number of days employed for those who participated in the program compared to a control group that did not. An analysis of covariance showed significance only on five variables. Lack of great differences between the experimental and control groups occurred because not all subjects in the experimental group actually participated in the program. When this problem was corrected, participation in group and individual sessions was significant in almost every instance. The number of days worked in the program correlated positively with the number of individual and group counseling sessions. Participation in the program was also found to relate positively to work motivation, career maturity, and several ego functions. No significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups for the number of psychiatric symptoms reported by subjects. In fact, when previous employment was statistically controlled, program subjects were less symptomatic than control group subjects. As a result of the experiment, a vocational rehabilitation program in eight phases was proposed. It was recommended that these phases be supplemented by individual sessions and a work support group. (KC)