This is why the Department for Work and Pensions set up the New Deal for Disabled People to fund a network of "job brokers", charged with helping people with mental and physical health issues or learning difficulties to find and keep jobs.
Since 2001, registered social landlords the Carr-Gomm Society and Advance Housing and Support have run Work in Progress, a pilot scheme based in Leicestershire. And this week Advance, which houses and supports people with mental health issues and learning difficulties, launched Advance Working to do the same thing in Berkshire.
Dinah Dawes, Advance Working's head of programme, says: "It's a vicious circle: losing your job can lead to mental health problems such as depression, while if somebody has an existing problem that is under control, the condition can be exacerbated if they are out of work."
Work In Progress is working
Work In Progress, which has 11 job brokers across the Midlands, has placed 184 people in work. Between half and three-quarters of those have kept their jobs. But with 32,000 people in Berkshire on incapacity or sickness benefits and eligible for help by Advance, the scale of its task is huge. Its New Deal funding depends on how many people the job brokers manage to register and then help into lasting jobs.
Dawes sees her project as giving the extra support the job centre doesn't have the resources to give. The organisation prints posters and leaflets for doctors' surgeries and mental health support groups, but referrals also come from the Jobcentre Plus disability employment adviser.
She says it's important to remember it is not a counselling service. "At first we had a tendency to want to get more involved in people's lives than we could realistically be," Dawes explains. "It's hard, but you have to make an assessment on whether somebody really is ready to work, not get involved in filling in benefit forms."
It is important to build a personal connection with clients. Work in Progress gives each client a personal job coach. They have a series of one-to-one meetings, starting with an assessment of what sort of work the client wants to get, and whether their skills are suitable.
People with mental health issues can be more creative because they’ve had to solve their own problems
A work agreement is then drawn up detailing what the organisation will do to help. Typically, this involves helping to write a CV that stresses skills the individual may have overlooked, teaching interview technique, filling in application forms and arranging any vocational training.
It's vital to be clued up on the welfare system. "Whether clients will lose their benefits if they start work is a very big issue," Dawes says. "But there are all sorts of things people can do without affecting their benefits, which they don't realise."
Advance uses software provided by Jobcentre Plus to calculate each person's finances with and without work.
Dealing with rejection
"If they are rejected, we try to identify any skills gaps they can get training for and help them see the employer may have had somebody with a different skill set who fitted better with the team – but next time, that person might be them," Dawes says.
The other main barrier to work is a problem with employers' perceptions. "Mental health issues are still something people find scary – employers fear the unknown and often they worry they won't be able to deal with the needs of a person with mental health problems," she says. Contacting prospective employers directly to reassure them of a candidate's abilities and to explain how their problems might affect their work – with the client's consent – can be the solution.
And she adds: "People with mental health issues can be a lot more creative in dealing with certain situations because they've had to find solutions for their own problems."
Source
Housing Today
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