February 2003 Canadian Mental Health Association, Durham Branch At our New Horizons program, we offer people with serious and pervasive mental disabilities or injuries, the opportunity to work, at better than minimum wage, in our Small Business Initiatives. Since 1997, these businesses have provided paid work assessments in catering, moving, cleaning and property maintenance. These programs reflect the attitude that recovery from any serious illness or injury is powerfully linked to the expectation that a person regain or acquire work. Our small businesses operate to a competitive standard and generate, by design, a surplus which is reinvested back to the program for training, maintenance and equipment. Participants individually choose to work when they feel able. Staff recruit, orient and contract all work from the day time participant pool. Who works on any given day is unimportant. All that matters is that the full daily worker compliment be achieved. The customer is usually a member of the general public, however, the moving service is used by everyone. Our small businesses reduce barriers to working to two choices. The first, to work or not to work and the second centres on a willingness to be receptive to direction. We knew we were on to something when our last survey told us that 27 people have moved on to the competitive marketplace by themselves without any further assistance from anyone. That tells us the confidence and the skills learned and achieved in our work assessments can be transferred, by the participant, to the real world market place. Finally, there are two important additional advantages to delivering service in this manner. The first is that all work is scheduled which permits staff considerable discretion around who, what, when and where work will be engaged in. This feature has preserved staff capacity by reducing traditional stresses that are generated from the unknown and the unanticipated. The second unforeseen benefit was the opportunity to challenge the public's stereotypical perception or understanding of mental health related issues by demonstrating first hand, that people are people. Stigma can be effectively challenged when the public has very positive experiences with workers who use our services to get back to the workforce. We often say that the public doesn't care if Martians cater or help them move their homes. They want efficient services that are a good value. It is always a pleasant surprise to find out who and why they exist. Contact: |