One day a woman with a mental disability walked into the Fairfax office of the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services seeking answers on why she had trouble staying employed.
It turns out the medication the woman was taking each evening was so strong it made it difficult for her to get up in the mornings.
“She kept getting jobs that required her to be there at 8 a.m.,” said Jane E. Bennett, human services manager. “When we figured out it was her medication, we helped her get a job that started at 10 a.m., giving her a couple extra hours to get going in the morning.”
For people with disabilities, finding and holding onto a job can be as simple as making a schedule change or can be more involved such as requiring additional skills training or special accommodations at work. There are agencies, both government and private, that can help with job training, career evaluations, job placement and dealing with employers when special accommodations are needed.
“PEOPLE WITH MENTAL DISABILITIES don’t have to disclose their disability. It’s like someone with diabetes or hypertension. An employer doesn’t know an employee has a mental disability,” said Cynthia Evans, coordinator of the Laurie Mitchell Employment Center, with two locations in Fairfax County.
According to statistics, the Laurie Mitchell Center, which was created in 1995, served 296 individuals from the period July 1, 2001 to March 25, 2002 and the center has helped more than 2,963 people since opening. Of the 296 people helped over the past eight months, 64 percent lived in Fairfax County. The center also helps people from Arlington and Prince William counties and the City of Alexandria, as well as Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
“There is a fairly sizable population that needs these services,” said Cherie Leporatti, coordinator of the OneSource Project, which is run through the Work Force Resource Center of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services. “It’s not only people with mental illness. But people with physical disabilities as well.”
The various centers see a range of people from those who are not job ready, to those who want to expand their job skills to find better paying jobs to those who need help once they find a job.
“It could be as simple as the employer providing a chair while the person works as a cashier or as involved as specialized software in a work environment,” Leporatti said.
ONE OF THE HURDLES people with disabilities face when looking for work is themselves. Besides helping with the practicalities of finding a job, such as creating a resume or providing an opportunity for a person to practice a job interview, the centers have to provide support that goes beyond helping someone look through the want ads.
“The biggest barrier is to help them not think of themselves as mentally ill,” said Evans. “We have to make them understand that yes, they do have challenges, but they also have something to offer.”
Self-esteem is not the only issue the centers try to help people overcome. Leporatti said that often people have unrealistic ideas about what they are able to do in the work force.
Many of the centers, for that reason, offer job evaluation services that help match a person to a job that fits their skill level or their temperament.
Bennett said the state Department of Rehabilitative Services provides situational assessments in which a job coach arranges for a person to spend some time, with the coach, at job sites.
“One day, we might take someone who is interested in being a veterinarian assistant or working in retail or in an office to those jobs. They’ll spend a couple hours at the vet's office to see what it is really like to work with and care for the animals, then spend a couple hours at a retail store followed by time in an office,” Bennett said. “The person might discover they really like working with animals and didn’t really do so great dealing with people.”
Evans said the Laurie Mitchell Center also offers people with mental disabilities the opportunity to volunteer to help fill in any gaps they may have in their resume. That is how she eventually became the center’s coordinator.
“I wanted to work in the mental health field. I have a mental illness and wanted to use my skills to help others,” she said. “I was a volunteer when the center opened and in 1999 I became a full-time employment specialist.”