This colorful 8.5" x 11" mini-poster is designed as a handout to help organizations inform people who use their services about the important relationship between benefits planning and pursuing and working a job. It is designed to encourage people diagnosed with disabilities—including mental illness—to seek advice to make more informed decisions about their financial futures, which may include benefits and employment. The poster presents some common myths about benefits programs that often hold people back from pursuing their employment dreams. It also provides a truth to dispel each myth.
Leave this mini-poster out in the waiting room of your building or in your office. Use it as an educational tool to facilitate conversations about the importance of benefits planning with consumers, family members, and community stakeholders. A large version (18" x 24") is available for display in waiting rooms and offices (click here).
Promote Supported Employment
This mini- poster may also be used to complement and promote Supported Employment, the evidence-based practice. SE is different from traditional vocational rehabilitation approaches. It emphasizes rapid job-search and placement services, among other consumer-centered principles and practices. It does not require pre-employment training or workshops. "Personalized benefits planning" is one of the core principles of SE.
Also available:
The Center for Evidence-Based Practices (CEBP) at Case Western Reserve University offers consultation and training about Benefits Planning (BP) for organizations that serve people diagnosed with disabilities, including mental illness or co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders. More information about Benefits Planning and Supported Employment are available on this website.