If you are going to move forward with implementing ‘evidence based’ employment practices for people with mental health and identical disabilities, federal agencies must come together and provide clear guidance on how funds from different agencies can be braided to afford people with mental health disabilities the opportunity to work and succeed. Getting and keeping a job can be challenging for people with mental health disabilities. Then the National Association of Mental Illness reports that fewer than two people percent using public mental health services receive supported employment services. Very few people with disabilities ultimately benefit, policy makers know how to provide employment services. Eventually, conflicting rules about payer of last resort make state agencies cautious about braided funding. Collaboration among multiple agencies at the federal and state levels, just like the Department of Labor, Vocational Rehabilitation, Medicaid and State Mental Health Agencies is critical to successful employment outcomes for people with mental health challenges. It also requires that these agencies have the ability to combine different funding streams. Although, National Disability Institute remains the first and only national nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to designing pathways to economic stability and mobility for persons with disabilities, since its inception in 2005.
Working age people with disabilities are less going to be employed than those without disabilities.
They are also more going to have depression, anxiety and chronic health challenges.
Lack of employment exacerbates disability, and disability becomes one of multiple barriers to employment. Supporting people with mental health disabilities might be good for federal and state budgets also. Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School found that individuals with a serious mental illness, who maintained work with an average of 13 dot 8 hours per week, had lower mental health care costs than those who were unemployed or not steadily employed.
