Pathway to Recovery from Mental Illness
Dr. Otto Toews ottobt2020@gmail.com
http://www.homestoheal.com/
Vancouver, BC, Canada
November, 2014
All rights reserved, 2014

Challenge
• Address post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Stressful situations
- soldiers returning home
- addiction
- poverty
- chronic illness
• Result – loss of career and self-esteem
To learn more about the effects of PTSD, read the stories in slides 3 & 4.
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Helping soldiers transition from combat to civilian life
When Tim Laidler came back to Vancouver, Canada after serving eight months in Afghanistan in 2010, he felt numb .... “I definitely picked up some baggage over there,” he said. “There were things I saw that were pretty horrific and they definitely came home with me… and they were having an impact on my life.”
That baggage included seeing a young girl setting herself on fire and almost shooting a young boy he thought was a Taliban militant.
It wasn’t just the traumatic feelings that he bottled up, it was also positive emotions that he had trouble dealing with.
To read Tim’s story, go to http://www.homestoheal.com/
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Here is the problem
PROBLEM Having an income to buy decent food and maintain a safe place to live is a priority for people who experience mental illness, yet they ...
suffer the highest level of unemployment of any group with disabilities.
RESULT – loss of faith in themselves
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Solution
• Homes to Heal
- a place to call home
- therapy
• Work that Heals
- purposeful employment
“A job is so much more than just a paycheck. It gives us purpose, dignity and the foundation to
build a future.” Cathy McMorris Rodgers 6

Pathway to Recovery
Work that Heals
• Discover the client’s dream
- Don’t settle for ‘I can’t ...’
• Support the necessary training
- specific or general
• Provide mentors for transition to work
• Try and try again till everyone has the
COURAGE TO COME BACK!
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Transition people recovering from mental illness and unemployment, including soldiers returning from active duty, to sustainable part time or full time employment through a career internship program in partnership with corporations ready to employ them.

• Partners for Mental Health
- promote mentally healthy workplaces
- solicit corporations to implement CIP
• Logistics Institute
- apply for start-up grant for a pilot program
- deliver on-line logistics course
• Coast Mental Health
- solicit and vet potential internees
- provide mental health support for internees
• Non-profit corporation to management the pilot program
- program coordinator
- mentor coordinator
• Corporations implementing CIP
- enrol 100 internees
- provide intership mentors

Outcome of CIP
• Provide training and skill development
• Prepare internees for a career in Logistics
• Support recovery from mental illness through jobs
• Enrol 100 clients per year by year 3
• Graduates
- 70% graduation rate
- 80% of graduates employed full time or part time within 6 months
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CIP - IMPLEMENTATION
• 3 month training program
• 3 month corporate internship
- mentors
- work experience
- create employment for internees
• 6 month job search
•
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CIP Time Line
Courses: 3 months
Logistics course
LOGISTICS ESSENTIALS SERIES
Writing
- English 2020
Mathematics
Kahn Academy
Mentor Coordinator
Mentors
Internship: 3 months
Corporate Sponsor
Logistics careers
Create employer network
Mentor Coordinator
Mentors
Start career: 6 months
Prepare a resume
Apply for jobs
Interview for jobs
Hired!
Mentor Coordinator
Mentors
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CIP Program
(3 months online)
• LOGISTICS ESSENTIALS SERIES
The foundation of Logistics http://www.loginstitute.ca/workshops.html
• Writing – English 2020 (free)
Think as you Write and
Write as you Think www.sponsoravillage.ca
• Math – Kahn Academy (free)
A world-class education for anyone anywhere www.kahnacademy.org
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General Training: Logistics
LOGISTICS ESSENTIALS SERIES
(Offered online by the Logistics Institute)
Module 1100: Logistics
Module 1200: Warehousing & Distribution
Module 1300: Traffic & Transportation
Module 1400: Purchasing & Procurement
Module 1500: Inventory Management
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Mentally Healthy Workplaces
• What’s at stake?
- 500,000 not at work today
- costs our economy $51 billion each year
- 3 in 4 disability claims related to mental illness
- 44% of workers say they have or had mental issues
- 23% would talk about it with their employer
• Build Mentally Healthy Workplaces
- Partners for Mental Health
- Resources for the workplace
- Not Myself Campaign in the workplace
•
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Requirement: Technology
• Laptop/tablet
• Internet access
• Appropriate software
• Training as needed
- determined locally
•
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Staff
• Program Coordinator – 1 full time
• Internship coordinator – 1 full time
• Program mentors - 4 part-time mentors
• Tech support – 1 full time
• Clerical – half time
•
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Outcomes
Internship clients successfully employed
• Part time/full time employment within 6 months
• Sustainable employment
• RIP Employ 6 grads – half time
CELEBRATE SUCCESS!
•
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Outcomes 2
Internship clients not successfully employed
These clients need temporary alternative work opportunities.
• Limited Self employment
- Some clients may have specific skills/talents to produce products which could be sold (e.g., knitting, woodwork, painting). The revenue could be split between rent payments and personal spending money.
• Domestic/maintenance work
- If this is volunteer work, it should be treated as work. Specific tasks to be done at specific times should be scheduled. Their hours of work should be recorded at minimum wages so that their labour is acknowledged even if they do not get paid.
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Assessment
• Client performance in the program
• Corporate sponsors evaluate the internship
• Self evaluation of the internship experience
• Third party interviews
•
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• Start-up grant for capital costs and operations
- 3 years for 100 internees per year
- $1,000,000.00
• After 3 years, the Program is sustainable through
- Crowd-funding – donations online ($650.00 per internee for course resources)
- Corporations pay $650.00 per internee instead of paying internees
- students repay education cost of $3,600 ($100.00/month for 36 months)
- Bank line of credit – shareholders/Board members sign for limited liability

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Pathway to Recovery
Often, the best therapy is a job.
Employment empowers people to
• Take back their power
• Know their strength
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