Grant Promotes Employment For People With Mental Illnesses

New Castle - A four-year grant from the Johnson & Johnson-Dartmouth Community Mental Health Program, a national initiative to provide job search services to people with severe mental illness, has enabled the Delaware Health and Social Services Division of Substance Abuse to partner with the Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to implement the evidence-based Supported Employment (SE) model. This new effort will "Kick-Off" on July 17, 2006 9 AM at the Buena Vista in New Castle County with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two divisions.

"Supported employment is simply the 'gold-standard' approach to help people with mental illness get and keep a job," says Renata Henry, director of Delaware Health and Social Services Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. "We know that getting a job is one of the top personal goals of many people working to recover from mental illness, and having a job supports recovery."

"The timing is right for the new SE initiative in Delaware," says DHSS Deputy Cabinet Secretary Karryl McManus. "An enjoyable job for a person recovering from mental illness serves the same function that it does for everybody else," McManus says. "Work provides people with structure and a sense of accomplishment. Many jobs increase the amount of time that consumers spend with other people and improve the financial situation of people living in poverty."

According to Renata Henry, "local mental health systems in Delaware who adopt and provide these practices in culturally-appropriate ways will have powerful tools at their disposal to help persons with mental illness achieve their individual recovery goals. The successful implementation of SE is vital to help many people reach these important goals." Read more at dhss.deleware.gov