Thank you.
Good morning. On behalf of the Canadian Mental Health Association, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. My name is Jodi Cohen, and I'm the president of CMHA, Alberta division.
Secure income is one of the most critical social determinants of health. Access to meaningful, paid work is a basic human right of every citizen. Those who experience serious mental illness should have equal access to the fundamental elements of citizenship, which include housing, education, income, and work. This means that each individual has the right to be employed in a mainstream job, rather than being labelled as a client in a training program or a sheltered workshop.
Of all persons with disabilities, those with a serious mental illness face the highest degree of stigmatization in the workplace and the greatest barriers to mainstream employment. Adults and youth with psychiatric disabilities face many and varied employment obstacles, such as gaps in work history, limited employment experience, lack of confidence, fear and anxiety, workplace discrimination and inflexibility, social stigma, and the rigidity of existing income support and benefit programs.
The unemployment rate of persons with serious mental illness reflects these obstacles and has been commonly reported to range from 70% to 90%, depending on the severity of the disability. These statistics are particularly disturbing in light of the fact that productive work has been identified as a leading component in promoting positive mental health and in paving the way for a rich and fulfilling life in the community.
Over the past decade, our research findings have begun to challenge the long-held belief that persons with mental illness are unemployable, or at best, employable in low-wage, entry-level positions. Traditionally, many mental health professionals viewed employment as a stressful event that would likely cause people with mental illness to experience a relapse. It was commonly assumed that work was something one did as a therapeutic experience, or even worse, that work was not possible for this population.
As a result, the traditional approach to employment for persons with serious mental illness was to create separate, isolated environments exclusively for people with disabilities--for example, sheltered workshops. This approach often resulted in repetitive work with low expectations for career development, low satisfaction, few employment choices, and less than minimum wage earnings, and served to segregate the clients from society rather than foster community integration and full citizenship.
Through our national research initiatives we have learned that people who experience serious and persistent mental illness can hold responsible jobs and make significant contributions to their work, home, and leisure lives despite the diagnostic label or the level of the severity of their illness.
One critical finding has consistently emerged. It has been shown to be ineffective to plunge persons with serious mental illness from a history of chronic unemployment and instability directly into competitive employment. Individuals who have been most successful at finding satisfying work were those who were supported in viewing their entry or re-entry into a mainstream workforce as a longer-term goal and not as a one-step process.
Research has proven that there are numerous employment strategies that can be combined in different ways to help a person build connections, skills, confidence, and resilience, thereby leading to the ultimate goal of mainstream work. Individuals who are most successful at finding work and keeping work were those who continued to receive both formal support, such as mental health providers, vocational rehabilitation counsellors, therapists, etc., and informal support, such as friends, family, self-help or peer group, whether directly within their work environment or outside of work.
In light of these findings, mental health professionals have started to shift their understanding of the role employment can play in the recovery of persons with serious mental illness. Increasingly, employment has been seen as an important way for consumers to reclaim their social roles and rebuild their self-management skills so that they can take control of the major decisions affecting them.
By creating and implementing employment support strategies, CMHA's Routes to Work program has been helping to put people with a serious mental illness on the path to mainstream employment since 2000. We provide individuals who have psychiatric disabilities with assistance in areas such as skill development, education upgrading, career decision-making, résumé writing, job search, and employment maintenance.
This program is successful in seven communities across the country and has been able to continue on an annual basis with funding from the federal government's Opportunities Fund, a fund designed to assist organizations to support individuals with disabilities to find and maintain meaningful mainstream employment.
Over the years, the Routes to Work program has demonstrated overall its effectiveness for people with serious mental illness.
CMHA is very proud of the work it has done in this area and would welcome the opportunity to serve many more individuals with serious mental illnesses wishing to find mainstream employment in their communities. Through this program, and with funding from the Opportunities Fund, we are able to make a difference.
In conclusion, the Canadian Mental Health Association is a strong supporter of individuals experiencing mental illness having full citizenship in their communities, including the ability to find employment. Persons with disabilities, particularly those with serious and persistent mental illness, face some additional challenges. A person affected by a mental illness can work but may be prevented from doing so by stigma or the lack of a workplace that offers the necessary accommodations. CMHA is pleased to support individuals experiencing mental illness through such programs as Routes to Work, and believes Canada has benefited in many ways from such investments.
Fundamentally, if Canada is to ensure that all Canadians live fulfilling lives in their communities, then the employment challenges of persons affected by mental illness need to be addressed more fully. CMHA urges the federal government to expand such programs to assist organizations in providing the supports necessary for successful employment integration.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.