Supported Employment: Training Frontline Staff - SAMHSA Store ...

mental illness to live full and meaningful lives and
that, for many consumers, employment is a key
recovery goal.
Employment specialists at River Valley Mental
Health Center should educate team members
about the SE program. Practitioners are often
unaware that consumers place a high value on
work. They may be unfamiliar with the principles
of SE. Practitioners may also inaccurately perceive
that work may be unduly stressful or they may
mistakenly assume that certain consumers may be
unable to work because of cognitive impairments,
symptoms, or medication side effects.
To educate practitioners, River Valley Mental
Health Center could arrange a session in which
working consumers describe their experiences
or invite an SE speaker to address practitioners’
concerns. To help change any inaccurate
perceptions, communicate the following:
• Work is valuable;
• Many consumers can work despite persistent
symptoms or cognitive impairments; and
• Most consumers do not find that work increases
stress—and some report that work decreases
stress.
River Valley Mental Health Center could also
conduct an in-service seminar on SE, make
brochures available, and mount posters to inform
Strategies for increasing referrals
• Inform key stakeholders of the SE referral
process.
• Talk to consumers who may be interested in
work to let them know about the SE program.
staff about SE services. The goal is to create a
culture in which all practitioners provide hope and
encouragement for consumers to consider working
and realizing their dreams.
Another way to encourage referrals is to offer
to meet individually with consumers who are
interested in learning more about SE but who have
not yet expressed a clear desire for competitive
work. Rather than making contact contingent
upon consumers’ expressing a clear desire for SE
services, employment specialists at River Valley
Mental Health Center could meet with interested
consumers to educate them about SE and to help
them explore whether they might like to try it.
Referrals can come directly from consumers and
their families as well as from other practitioners.
Therefore, River Valley Mental Health Center
could educate consumers about SE services in
these ways:
• Through their case managers;
• Through consumer-related activities; or
• Through periodic information groups conducted
either weekly or biweekly.
River Valley Mental Health Center could inform
consumers who are new to the agency about the
SE program during the agency’s intake process.
In some cases, SE services may be what interests
consumers in receiving agency services at all.
In summary, an effective SE referral process has
minimal eligibility requirements. You will increase
the number of referrals received if you educate key
stakeholders about the role that work can play in
recovery from mental illness, tell them about the
availability of SE services, and make it easy to refer
consumers to the SE program.
• Speak at your local consumer organization to
educate consumers about work and SE.
• Speak at a National Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI) meeting to let families know about
the SE program.
Module 2 4 Referral, Engagement, and Benefits Counseling