>> As I mentioned, we do have a pretty packed agenda today. We will be uncovering the welcome and introductions right now and then we have those folks from Aspire in Vienna who will talk to us about mental illness, myths and facts, the advantages of working, the Ticket to Work Program, reasonable accommodations and whether or not work is possible for you. We do have a replacement speaker today. Her name is Stephanie Gauge and she's here for Kendra Berry. We will also be talking with a woman named Laurie who is here to offer her story of using the Ticket to Work program. We're very pleased to welcome her as well. At this point I would like to turn it over to Tina [inaudible] to talk to us a little bit about mental illness, myths and facts. Tina works at Aspire Indiana and she's held a variety of [inaudible] employment positions that include case manager, employment consultant, program manager, and she's now the director of employment services. And she's actually working at one of the first mental health center supported employment programs in Indiana. So we're very happy to have her today and Tina take it away.

>> Alright, well thank you so much Jayme. I am so excited to be a part of yet another WISE event. This is one of my most favorite WISE events to do so it's exciting to get to be here and be with everyone. We're going to start today by going through some of the myths and facts about mental illness. So, let's start out with the first question. Mental health problems don't affect me. Is this true or false? Well it's false. Mental health problems are common. Chances are you or someone close to you have experienced some form of mental illness. In 2014 it was estimated that one of five American adults experienced mental health issues. But youth are also affected by mental illness. One out of 10 young adults experience a period of major depression. And believe it or not, mental health is even more common than some of the most common illnesses that we're familiar with, such as various types of heart diseases. It was estimated that one out of 25 Americans live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression. Alright, so let's try this again. Remember it's a true or false statement. People with mental health needs even those who are managing their mental illness well may not tolerate the work of holding a job down, true or false? Oh this is so, so not true. It is definitely false. People with mental illness diagnosis can be just as productive as any other employee. From my own experiences of working with employers and working with the SHRM organization, which is the society for human resource management, employers have found that individuals with mental illness are on par or sometimes even better employees than individuals who have no disability at all. For example, employers have reported that individuals who have mental illness actually have better attendance, they are more punctual, their motivation is good. They have good work ethic and oftentimes spend longer on the job. So that means they stay at their jobs longer. Alright, let's go on just a little bit further with this conversation. The next part is really when people with mental illness health diagnosis receive effective treatment it can result in a much lower cost for medical costs. There are multiple health studies that show that actually the health cost goes down as individuals go to work. We also know that productivity increases. Sometimes people only need a little bit of counseling or even a slight change in medication. They can really control those symptoms from their illness and be very productive within their work. The next one is very simple, lower absenteeism. If you feel better, you're probably going to go to work. The last one is the decrease in disability costs. I had a, one particular individual, a gentleman told me that he didn't like all the rules of being a beneficiary. So by going to work and getting off of benefits he no longer had to follow all those rules. So going to work for him was really a stress reducer and really allowed him to be more self-sufficient. Alright, so let's go onto another question. Again, this is true or false. There is little hope for people with mental health diagnosis. Once a friend or family member develops mental health problems he or she will never recover. Wow, is this false too. Studies show that people with mental health diagnosis get better and may recover. In fact, employment is a significant part of the recovery model. And while each person defines his or her recovery a little bit different, the general consensus is that recovery refers to the process in which people are able to live, work, learn and participate fully in their communities. These days there are many treatments and services and community supports out there. And even before, this is far more than ever before. So individuals have an opportunity to really access and really become fully engaged in their recovery supports. With our new understanding of the brain and its chemistry, we are learning more every single day. Alright, so that concludes our true and false statements. So where can you get more information? One of the places where I like to go to get more information is at mentalhealth.gov. This website provides you a one stop access to information about mental health and mental health programs from all over the United States from the U.S. government. You can see the link next to it that says www.mentalhealth.gov. Mentalhealth.gov aims to educate and guide the general public health and emergency preparedness professionals, policymakers, government and business leaders, school systems and local communities. And the one thing that I noticed on here that wasn't included is that really its designed to help everybody, beneficiaries, anyone who is interested about mental health services. So let's bring it back to Jayme for the introduction into the next section. Jayme take it away.

>> Thank you much Tina and thank you for that very informative true and false session. And we also wanted to thank mentalhealth.gov for serving as a resource for those questions. And we hope that they made you think a little bit about mental health and some of the myths. So next up we have Stephanie Gauge and Stephanie began working in benefits counseling as a benefits information network liaison in 2007 while she was at Easter Seals Crossroads. At Easter Seals Crossroads she also worked as a career assessment counselor and a benefits information network liaison. So she recently joined the WIPA project and the [inaudible] and Stephanie will explain a little bit of what all of that means. And she now works with Tina at Aspire Indiana. So Stephanie let's hear some of the advantages of working.

>> Okay, thank you Jayme. Good afternoon. I am Stephanie Gauge. I am a community work incentive coordinator with the WIPA project for northern and central Indiana. We provide benefits counseling to people free of charge. We are a grant program through social security. So you may be asking yourself why is work important? What are the advantages of work? As you can see on slide 19, there are several reasons people choose to work. It may be just to earn more income. I mean who doesn't want a little extra money coming in. Gain independence, but oftentimes, especially for those with a mental health diagnosis work benefits such as meeting new people and learning new skills leads to increased self-esteem, which is a great advantage for a person overall. And I think it's so important, that last point is to be a part of the community. We all know that it's important to feel connected and that that has great effects on you as an overall person. Work can also help you with your health. People who work are often physically healthier than people who do not work with fewer aches and pains. Sometimes just staying busy can shift your attention or focus from what's wrong to work. It can just be a great distractor. Work also provides structure, which for many with a mental health diagnosis is crucial. It also helps people stay active and involved and it helps exercise not only their bodies but their minds, creativity and skills. Working can also provide people with a way to contribute to the community. So often we identify ourselves with our job, our career, what we do. And the loss of that can make us feel like less of whole person and can affect us not only physically and financially but also mentally and emotionally. Working and contributing to a community can provide a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being part of a larger group with a purpose, really to have some meaning to your life. Working can also give us a sense of future. Setting goals such as earning a promotion or developing new skills can motivate people forward. Working is a way to invest in ourselves, in our future. It gives us hope and drive to accomplish more and be better. I worked with a lady who suffered from severe depression for years. Many years she didn't even get out of bed or leave her house. She had a lot, two children and just couldn't find a reason to get out of bed in the morning. She worked with vocational rehabilitation and me as a career assessment counselor at that point to learn a new trade. She actually learned phlebotomy and was able to get trained and licensed in that and got a job. This gave her hope. It also gave her a way to work herself off benefits that she was receiving, which I also provided benefits counseling to her at that time to help her segue. And she found joy in life again, which I think is the biggest benefit to working. So now that you understand how great work can be, how do I get there? The Ticket to Work Program can provide support on your journey to work. There are two main social security disability benefits programs that the Ticket to Work Program can be utilized by. The first is what is called Title II, more commonly known as social security disability insurance or SSDI. This benefit is for people who have worked enough to become insured through paying into the FICA system. It can also be received by a parent's work record, a child with a disability that can receive those as an adult off of the parent's record. A person must work for a specific time though and be disabled according to social security's guidelines to receive this benefit. The second social security disability benefits program is supplemental security income for SSI. This is very different from the SSDI program. Although the acronyms are very close so it seems like they should be similar, they are very different. The SSI program is a needs based federal program. It's for individuals with disabilities who haven't worked or haven't worked enough to receive SSDI. Although these are two different programs sometimes people receive both SSDI and SSI at the same time. You may say, "Well how could this happen?" Well, sometimes the SSDI benefit is below the federal minimum level of SSI. This year that level is $733. When this happens the SSI benefit will be given to make up the difference between that SSDI benefit and that maximum federal level. So, how do I start this journey? Only you can decide if work is the right choice for you or sometimes more importantly when work is the right choice for you. A great first step is to look into the Ticket to Work Program. The Ticket to Work Program is a free and voluntary social security program to provide you with employment support. It can offer career development for people age 18 through 54 to receive social security disability benefits so either that SSDI or SSI. So Ticket to Work can help you take the next step by gathering information and resources. That is the key to planning your journey towards employment. Ticket to Work and Work Incentives can help make your journey a smooth one. Let's face it, if you don't work in this field and even sometimes when you do work in this field, it can be very confusing and overwhelming thinking about all the benefits that are being received and working and the impact that will have on it. But there's help available that you can, so I suggest looking into this program not only for help in looking for a job but in understanding the benefits and the work incentives that are involved. Slide 30 with the Ticket to Work helpline number you can call the Ticket to Work helpline a 1-866-968-7842 or for individuals that have hearing disabilities, you can contact 1-866-833-2967. Or you can also find out more by visiting www.choosework.net. Okay, now let's look into my personal favorite, Work Incentives. Yes, social security actually has some great incentives that can help you work or try to work. Work Incentives are special rules that allow you to receive training for new skills, improve the skills you already have, pursue your education, try different jobs, start a career and to gain confidence. There are many, many different work incentives but this slide shows, slide 33 shows the most common work incentives. The first one is earned income exclusion. And there are different work incentives that can help you earn more money and social security can exclude some of your earnings when determining if you're at the SGA level or when adjusting your SSI check. Now there are different ones for SSI and SSDI. So it's always important to verify which benefit you're actually receiving before you start looking into these work incentives. The second thing listed is that protection from medical continuing disability reviews. Anyone receiving social security disability benefits have a continued disability review. The time frame in which you or the frequency in which you have it varies on your disability. If you are utilizing your ticket you are protected from a review while you are making timely progress towards your milestone. That is one of the greatest work incentives to you know feel like you can try and you don't have to worry about that continued disability review while you're trying. Trial work period or PWP is the first timeline for social security disability insurance recipient. This one is actually just for SSDI. This allows you to give your full effort to your, towards your employment goal and no matter how much you make during that timeframe you still remain eligible for your benefits payment. However, if your earnings are above a certain level, this year that level is $810, however in prior years it was less. You still get your SSDI check. They'll just say you used one of those nine trial work periods. Now some people use those all in a row. Other people may use one one month and then not use one again for six more months. Social security looks at a rolling 60 month period when determining when you've used those nine trial work periods. I would suggest always checking with social security to see where you're at in that timeline though. Sometimes people have used their trial work period, all of them or some of them and aren't aware of that fact. So please make sure that you check that before thinking that you have all nine of those trial work periods available. Down at the bottom row there is a continuation of Medicare coverage. This again is for SSDI recipients because Medicare is only available to those who are receiving SSDI. This is a work incentive that can help you continue to have Medicare coverage for at least 93 more months after you complete your trial work period. So, while you are trying to work and if you want to try full time work you still have that Medicare coverage for at least 93 more months after trial work period, which is a great incentive. That gives you time to figure out healthcare wise getting that set up with work if that's available through your work. Now I wanted to note that if you are receiving Medicare coverage and you're only looking at part time work you're going to stay under that SGA level your Medicare coverage would not be impacted by working. The next work incentive that's listed there is Section 1619b or continued Medicaid eligibility. And that is a federal work incentive to help people keep their Medicaid coverage, even if your SSI stopped. Your eligible for your Medicaid until your gross annual income reaches a certain amount. In the state of Indiana that amount this year in 2016 is $36,772. So that is a great work incentive for individuals on SSI who aren't earning enough that they can purchase their own insurance but need to keep that Medicaid and maybe their work doesn't offer healthcare coverage. The last one listed is expedited reinstatement of benefits. And this is for both SSI and SSDI recipients. If you lose your benefits due to working and you need those reinstated you can request to have your benefits reinstated within a 60 month period if you're no longer able to work or no longer able to work at the substantial gainful activity level due to the original disability. So, I know that that's, all of those sound wonderful and they are, but there are so many other work incentives that are available. I urge you to you know look into work incentives and into the Ticket to Work and the WIPA project because we can help you through this to know which work incentives are specifically available to you still. Okay and that concludes the portion on the Work Incentives.

>> Thank you so much Stephanie. You did a great job and I actually have a quick question for you. We have a participant who went on SSI due to their mental health issues and now their physical health is working, is worsening, I'm sorry. Can that person still use Ticket to Work? Okay they went on SSI. Absolutely. If they're you know on SSI they can, that was one of the two main categories that the Ticket to Work benefit, beneficiaries can utilize, yes.

>> Great, thank you Stephanie. Okay and I'm sure that I will have some more questions towards the end. I want to remind folks that the Q&A box is to the right of your webinar screen. You can also submit questions to wedinars@choosework.net if you're not able to access that Q&A box. We do have a lot of folks out there today so we may not get to all of them, but we'll have some great resources for you at the end if we are unable to answer your question. Next up on the agenda we're actually going to take a little detour and I am going to introduce Lori, who is going to be one of our future success stories in the future. And Lori we're so happy to have you here today. And just going to kind of ask you a few questions to tell us a little bit about your story. So Lori are you out there?

>> Hi Lori.

>> I'm here. Hi. Thanks for having me.

>> Thank you so much Lori. I'm just going to start at the beginning. What were the circumstances that led you to social security disability benefits? Can you tell us a little bit about what you experienced?

>> Absolutely and I just wanted to introduce myself a little bit. My name is Lori Adler and I live in the Midwest in Indiana and actually where some of the other speakers live as well. I'd be happy to talk about the circumstances that led me to be on social security disability. My disability is actually a hidden disability that I've had since a small child during grade school years. I start suffering from panic attacks, major anxiety and also obsessive compulsive disorder at about age nine or 10. And the first time I experienced a panic attack was at summer camp when I was away from home for the first time. I realized something was very wrong and back then anxiety disorders weren't really a common topic at all. It's actually something lifelong for me and chronic. It's brought me a lot of great challenges and obstacles to my life. I've been nearly homebound at some times and hospitalized. I had to miss out on a lot of activities that a lot of people you know without a mental illness would not even have to go through because of all the strong fears. And it became very debilitating in my mid 20's and I was no longer around age 25 able to hold down my full time job in the corporate world. And I've worked very hard to get to that point. But I start having massive complications including non-stopping anxiety, depression, panic. I would throw up, inability to sleep, eat and I wasn't able to function in my daily life at all anymore, which was very disheartening because I had always been you know a very high achiever. And I ended up having to leave my job then and had to apply for social security disability and got SSDI because of having worked enough and had enough points. So that's kind of what led me to be a part of the program I guess as far as my disability.

>> Thanks so much Lori and thank you for being so open with your story. I know that participants really appreciate your honesty. So at that point you had stopped working and you're on SSDI. So what made you want to try to work again?

>> I think for me it's that I've always been a very high achiever. There's a lot of reasons but wanting to contribute to my family again, being so young and going on disability obviously wasn't something I had planned for or expected. I was living on my own. I was alone and I felt like life kind of stopped and I wanted to, once I start feeling a little better and I got on medication and some other professional services I really just wanted to give back again. And I felt like I had to have some type of skill or ability that I could put to use. I just wasn't sure at the time you know what that was yet.

>> And how did you find the Ticket to Work Program?

>> Actually I had a friend and she had been on an online forum, a work at home forum actually because I had been looking for work at home because of my disability. I just felt it would be better you know if I could try to be at home and find a job. And she saw something online, a forum and said that this company helps people on SSI or SSDI return to work and they specialized in work at home. And that was Employment Options and so it was scary but I took the first step and gave them a call. And that was probably in 2010 and I applied with them, you know did the process and we were a good fit for each. So I became a client in their work at home program. So I found work at home you know online, so.

>> Well that's great. Thank you so much Lori and I know that that first position actually ended for you and you were able to find another job through them as well. Can you talk a little bit about that transition?

>> Absolutely. Actually I started with a couple of positions you know working from home and going back to work it was a big transition. I had never worked out of my house at all. When I came on board with employment options as a client the CEO was actually my job counselor, Paula and I told her I needed work at home and she had found me a really good job that I really liked. It was with a pharmaceutical company and they had opened a virtual division. So I worked there for several months. I actually went back full time during my trial work period phase, which I wasn't expecting but I was able to do that and save up some money during that time. But unfortunately, the virtual division it was a company that was based out of New York and they had a brick and mortar company, but then they had a virtual as well. And that part closed down, so I had to go back to the drawing board. But actually with that happening after a few months Paul, which was the CEO of my employment network actually had an opening for marketing and public relations and she had asked if, how I felt about working for her directly. So now I actually work for my employment network and help other people learn about the Ticket to Work Program like I did.

>> That's sure great and Tina actually works with the Ticket to Work Employment Network as well and I don't think that we've really defined what that is. Lori can you do that for us?

>> Sure. An employment network is an agency in the Ticket to Work Program and Employment Options happens to be one that helps multiple states. They help 47. Some agencies just help beyond just one or two states, it just depends. And each one are certified by social security and they can provide free different types of career and employment services including help with you know job pools, resume skills, interview process, help finding employers, filling out applications, accommodations. Employment Options helped me with all that. I was concerned about my gaps in employment because I had been out of work a while and Paula helped tweak my resume you know so that wouldn't be the focus. So, all of that was free and a huge help for me, especially with having anxiety because kind of taking that first step on your own is pretty tough. But having someone to help you know really helped me a lot.

>> That's really great. Thank you so much Lori.

>> Oh, you're welcome. You've talked a little bit about some of your concerns but can you elaborate a little bit on the concerns that you had about going back to work. Were you at all worried about losing your benefits and should any of those concerns come true?

>> Well with having anxiety as my main disability as I'm sure if anyone that's on the call has anxiety, I worried about everything you could think of. You know what if I went back to work would my disability checks stop right away? Would I lose my medical insurance because you know I needed medication and going to the doctors. I worried about every little thing I could think of or that would be possible. I worried about that and I worried about you know the medical insurance and the prescriptions and all the what ifs. You know how is this going to work? Just so many things going through my head and actually a lot of the things I've read online the other people had posted like the minute you stop you get your first paycheck your benefit stops. That is all not true. The concerns I had were put to rest with being with an employment network and you can probably ask anyone in employment options. I had, I had a lot of questions and a lot of concerns and just knowing I could call them and I'm still a client even though I work for them. You know I can talk to you about, you know I got this letter or that form, what does that mean? So, I did have a lot going in. I was really, really scared especially with like I said having anxiety. But you know having someone guiding me with the program made it, made it a lot better.

>> Thank you so much. Do you think that employment has had an impact on your health at all?

>> Oh I think so, absolutely. I think for me and I think one of the speakers mentioned it when you have a mental illness at least for me you're kind of you know stuck in your head a lot. And I feel like it's given me so many ways to focus. I feel like you know I have a purpose and not that job is your only purpose. But I don't you know at this time have children, so having a job allows me to contribute to my family. I feel like it's giving me you know more independence and helped my self-esteem such as you know speaking on a WISE webinar and things like that. You know I think it's pushed me to do things that you know I didn't think I ever would. It's given me a sense of self-worth again and you know just being able to help others I think that's the biggest impact. And I think it's given me a focus and helped me grow.

>> Well that's so great and we're thrilled to have you here. And you're doing a fantastic job so thank you. We actually have a question for you from the audience. We have someone out there who wants to know if you have any advice for employers who want to do a better job with promoting mental health in the workplace?

>> I think you know utilizing the resources that you mentioned the Mental Health Echo, the National Mental Health Institute, I think having you know if it's a big company perhaps having you know small like focus groups or something where people could you know talk about you know their mental illness. Because like you said in the beginning, there's so many people that have it and for me at first sharing about it was not easy. I was embarrassed and now I'm at the opposite end of that where when people start sharing their story with me, you know I felt like sharing mine would help others. So I think just you know having a place where people can talk about, whether that's support groups or an online group. That would kind of vary based on the company, but I think things like that are helpful.

>> Okay, thanks so much Lori. And do you have any advice for talking about your disability just from a personal level? What kind of gave you the push and the confidence to tell your employer?

>> I think for me it was you know being with the employment network. You know Paula has written a book and she guides us specifically on how to do that. Unless I needed an accommodation I didn't necessarily you know admit to them that I had the anxiety at all times unless it was you know necessary. I tried to just you know, I had a video interview for one of the jobs and I just tried to let my skills and abilities kind of like you know sell myself for what I was able to do. So that's kind of how I did it. As far as working with Paula and then you know they know about my disability but I do feel like them knowing that, I think they see that it does, I think people with anxiety do, because we're often overachievers we have a lot of focus. We get a lot more done. Not a lot more done, but you know we have a good work ethic. So does that help answer?

>> It sure does and we have another question from the audience and then we're going to do a couple, just one more question and wrap it up.

>> Sure.

>> You mentioned that your employment network helped you with your resume gaps, you know fill those gaps in employment. First is that something a lot of the employment networks do? And second did you end up getting asked about them in any of your interviews?

>> As far as the gaps in employment, what was the first part? I'm sorry.

>> Will a lot of the employment networks, sure. Will a lot of the employment networks work to help address those issues with their clients?

>> Okay gotcha. I think absolutely. I mean each network is different in the program. So the best thing I would do is usually if you get a list or you start calling around and just ask what types of services they have. Or when you look at their profile you can see what they offer. Most if they are an employment network you know would help with a resume. Employment Options you know every agency does it different. They actually assign you to your own job counselors, so that's how they helped me with a resume. I worked one on one with them. I had one typed up, but they kind of helped me tweak it and you know get it to where it needed to be. And then the second question again.

>> Let me think, oh during your interviews did you get asked about any of your employment gaps?

>> I believe I did in the one for the pharmaceutical position, but Paula had worked with me on how to address that and what to say. And we had tweaked the resume to focus you know less on the years but more on like what I did. So she had helped me. I was prepared you know how to answer that from what she went over with me prior. We do interview practice with our clients and that helped me a lot because I hadn't been on an interview in a really long time, especially a virtual one. So, that was part of the employment services they provided.

>> Great. Thank you and I'm going to try to wrap this up. But we did get a bunch of questions from people wondering if they can work from home.

>> If you want, I don't know how you want to address them. I can you know you're welcome to email me. I don't know if you want to give that out or I can try to just briefly explain it as far as what Employment Options does. Is that okay or did you just want--

>> Sure. I'll just answer first that yes, your Ticket to Work you can absolutely work from home. So that's a possibility out there and Employment Options is just one choice that you can help you with that. And then Lori why don't you just tell us quickly what Employment Options does.

>> Sure. You know as she said there are different agencies that offer different you know types of work at home. We do specialize in work at home and we also offer onsite employment in 47 states. So people can apply for either or. Our typical work at home are either customer service or tech support based positions. And then we have a variety of specialties. We partner with leading employers who have anything from billing and coding, we have nursing from home, tech support, IT, and just from different career levels and all of them are usually for the most part customer service or tech support based and based on the person's experience they can specialize in a specific area. You know working at home just like any position inside the home, you know it is a great opportunity but it's not you know always for everyone. It just depends on you know some people need the interaction or want to get out. But you do, they will look at your typing speed, that you have a home office that's quiet, you have a certain type of computer and a little, you know you have to have some type of customer service experience. You know we'd be happy to speak with you or if anyone you know wants to email me I'd be happy to talk about my story or whatever I can do to help. And if we can't help you we always have resources that we give out related to work at home, just to be able to give something to you.

>> Alright. Okay, thanks so much Lori and the one last question before we jump back into our presentations and kind of a two-parter. One is would you recommend--

>> I muted it.

>> Yeah you said something about Friday.

>> So it sounds like we have some background noise.

>> Well maybe we were over there at one time a long time ago.

>> I'm sorry. We have to mute, we have some background noise.

>> Well what a pleasure.

>> I'm sorry folks. Hang on just one second.

[ Inaudible background discussion ]

Okay it sounds like we're okay. I'm sorry about that. So Lori, a two-part question for you. The first is would you recommend the Ticket to Work program to others and do you have any additional words of advice for people out there who are considering going to work. Sure. I absolutely 1000% would recommend the Ticket to Work program. For me I feel like it was a blessing trying to take that first step on my own especially with having anxiety and a mental illness was very difficult. Having an employment network I just felt like I had someone you know even though virtually they helped me. I had that support and I had someone there to ask questions and I had a lot of them. All the things I worried about they could explain you know and go over that. I feel it is just a great program. You know it's free. It's volunteering. It just allows you to get help in so many ways with you know being out of work for a while how to handle you know returning to work for the first time, your resume. Just offers so many great work incentives and I would absolutely recommend it and I was happy to share you know how it helped me. And as far as any words of advice to anyone considering work I think my biggest piece of advice that I would think or that I would say is that always remember when you return to work just take it in baby steps. That's what helped me because thinking about it as a whole gets a little overwhelming. And kind of a quote I always think of is, "Rome was not built in a day." And that's what I liked about the program. It allowed me to gradually return to work and take things slowly and give it a try. And that's one thing, it allows you to try it and still keep your benefits on and that was such a relief to me. And then the last thing I think would be the never say never. Try to talk to yourself positively and I had told myself and my family that I would never get off disability benefits and I would never work full time again. And after several years of being in the program I think I'm in year five I have, I now work full time and I just worked off of benefits recently. So, just never you know never say never and don't limit yourself.

>> Well thank you so much Lori and congratulations on your success.

>> Thank you Jayme. We are so thrilled that you were able to join us today. And thank you again for being so open and honest about your story. Our audience is saying thank you as well. So wonderful job and we hope to have you on sometime in the future. So thank you.

>> Thank you all for having me.

>> Thank you. So, at this point we're going to go back to our regularly scheduled programming and Tina is going to talk to us about reasonable accommodations.

>> Alright well thank you. Well that's definitely a big act to follow. Lori congratulations. It's amazing your journey and really enjoyed hearing your story and your insights into the Ticket to Work Program. So the next session we're going to talk about reasonable accommodations and while some disabilities are quite visible mental illness as Lori alluded to is often referred to as the hidden disability. And there are many views on how accommodations should be handled and approached. And really each person is unique. Their situation is unique and so they're really isn't a solid template that says you have to do steps A, B and C. But what I can tell you from my own personal experience with disclosing my own disability is that you need to know your disability how it could or may impact your employment and create some type of plan. Now whether that's in a specific formal plan such as requesting an accommodation or maybe a written plan within the mental health continuum there are written plans such as the wellness recovery action plan or WRAP plan and that's a formal plan that outlays what to do when the symptoms of your mental illness start affecting your daily life. You may also utilize an employment network. Lori did a very nice job of talking about her employment network was helpful in addressing the situations that were specific to her anxiety. When things got in her head as she kind of referred to it. So that's a really formal process and where you did a very nice job of defining that each employment network is a little bit different. And again each network may be able to help you in different ways. So Lori received a lot of her information through long distance communication. But other employment networks may physically be in your general area. For example in Indiana, I believe there's 108 employment networks. Don't quote me on that but something to that nature. The other point to this is that sometimes accommodations are informal in process. For example you may just simply set up some type of situation where you know the plan is when you start becoming anxious you have somebody to reach out to. That may be a family member. It may be a friend, whoever that might be. So again no matter what your circumstance is figure out a plan. So let's go on to slide 35 and talk a little bit more about what a reasonable accommodation is. So let's start out the term, in terms of employment reasonable accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job, work environment or that enables and please in quotes, "qualified applicants or employees with disabilities to participate in the application process." It's not just about the job. It's about the application process or performing essential functions of the job. So what the federal law basically requires is that employers provide a reasonable accommodation and we're going to come back to that word reasonable here in just a minute, to qualified individuals with disabilities unless it causes undue hardship. And that word's kind of tricky. Undue hardship what it basically implies is that the business will not incur significant financial hardships in order to meet the accommodation. One of the core components of reasonable accommodation is this discussion about find a reasonable, it's not the best accommodation necessarily. It could be but it doesn't necessarily specify that you have to have the best. It just says reasonable. So let's go on and talk a little bit more about reasonable accommodation. If you need a reasonable accommodation okay, first thing you need to do if you need a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform a task you have to ask to speak with the affirmative action compliance officer. That's a really big huge job title. In the past a lot of those compliance officers were within the HR departments. Nowadays they may be in a whole variety, they may be in a totally separate unit. But if you do need a reasonable accommodation one of the first things that you need to do is really get in touch with the affirmative action compliance officers. So we have listed here some accommodations. This may be in the form in a formal format so making a change to the application process. So for example I worked with an individual who was visually impaired and he needed to have the application in electronic format instead of handwriting. And so it was possible, they actually had that format available at a online website so you didn't have to fill out that actual paper document. Providing documents in the alternative format. Again that example that I just gave could be an example of an alternative format. And a lot of times access may be around utilizing braille services. You could also use, utilize sign language interpreters or even specialized equipment. For example for myself I use what is called a screen reader. And what it does is actually read the text that is on my screen. And it actually cost my employer nothing because it's already embedded within my computer system. So again, a lot of accommodations don't even cost anything. They're very simple. So let's talk about what type of reasonable accommodations are available for people with mental illness. There are many types of reasonable accommodations available to people with mental illness. But we have listed out six different specific ones that are the most common. One particular accommodation that's around concentration. For example, there's a gentleman who works for an agency and once he was actually hired and we looked at the workspace, he asked for a reasonable accommodation which was to have a private workspace due to his difficulties concentrating. Actually what he got was his own office. So, it was actually a really good accommodation for him. But it worked out quite well. He's been a really great asset to our team. We're glad to have him with us. Another example is around memory. Asking accommodations for memory and quite frankly most of us probably already use one of the most common accommodations which is called a list. So having a job list is just a very simple accommodation for individuals who may be having problems with memory. There may be organizational accommodations for example that may be including a structured time frame for a specific task or for specific steps. We have time management is also another accommodation. Again putting timeframes on those task lists. Probably the most common ones I've used with individuals who may be having problems staying on track and may have problems with that time structure. Another accommodation is around requesting an accommodation for stress or emotions. An example of that is I worked with someone where there would be times where he could feel that kind of getting a little anxious. And if he was just allowed five minutes to walk out of, away from that particular job station, get regrouped and then come back he was able to keep that anxiety underneath or-- the last piece is one that is always really in question. The ADA has talked quite a bit about attendance and if it is considered an essential job function. What the courts say is it is an essential job function, but there have been some modifications. For example, one of the simplest adjustments to this attendance is called a flexible work schedule. Lori eluded to the fact that she worked at home. So that's another type of accommodation that may not require to have attendance in a physical place, but that she, her attendance is counted a little bit differently. So although we have covered some accommodations we also wanted to give you some other tools, things that you can utilize. Things that you can set up. For instance, let's talk a little bit about reducing distractions in the work area. So, I mentioned earlier that individuals who were having problems with concentration by just simply reducing the distractions in his work area he was able to stay focused. Another option is to utilize a white noise machine or some type of soothing music. I worked with an individual that utilized headphones while they worked. That helped reduce his stress and anxiety and also kept him focused. The next option is to try a plan of uninterrupted work time. So trying to make sure that there aren't too many disruptions in the actual work task timeframe. So for instance, I work in an office where there are a lot of people coming and going. So setting up specific timeframes where the individual can be uninterrupted to work would be helpful. The next option would be increasing in natural light and it's amazing. In my office I oftentimes utilize natural light. We know from studies that also helps with mood. So that's an example of another accommodation. The last one here is divide larger assignments into smaller tasks and goals. Lori you had mentioned that sometimes the first step is the biggest step and to do smaller bites is helpful. I think this really stands true for a lot of accommodations. A lot of times when you're brand new at a job they throw a lot of things at you all at once. Sometimes breaking down those tasks or goals can help, help you feel less stressed. So let's go onto the next one. We actually have some actual tools that you can use. For example, you can ask for written or verbal instructions. You can ask for a written checklist. And for instance here at Aspire we have a housekeeping company and what we have basically set up is checklists to help people with their anxiety in making sure that they, that they're able to know all the functions of the job. What has happened with that accommodation is actually laid to every single employee who works in housekeeping at Aspire regardless of disability. So sometimes those accommodations work out being good for everyone. Another option is a wall calendar or creating a daily or weekly task list. You can also ask to record meetings or trainings. These days a lot of training are tape recorded and so it's not so uncommon for somebody to do that. You can ask for a memory aid such as schedulers, organizers or even apps. One of my favorite one is my iPad. I utilize that a lot. So, let's go on to the next item. We, you'll see some more reasonable accommodations. Those accommodations may include a flexible work environment, working from home, flexible schedules. You can ask for a mentor or job coach. On the job site we talked about employment networks. You can bring your trained supports or service animals. So these are all examples of reasonable accommodations. Okay so now that you know some types of reasonable accommodations you may wonder how to ask for them. One of my favorite sites is the JAN website at www.askjan.org. And there is a note on the resource section that also includes that website. So JAN or the job accommodation network recommends that you ask for a reasonable accommodations in writing, okay. So the reason for that is in writing it helps you and your employer be very clear about what you need to be successful in your job. So, some of the things on this website I find really helpful and I often refer people to are the disclosure plan. There are scripts, I mean just a plethora of tools for you all to utilize. The other thing that I want to point out is that your employer may have an in-house form. So while it is true that you can request an accommodation either verbally or in writing. Again, it's always best to place it in writing. Alright let's go on and talk a little bit more about what you need to put into that request for a reasonable accommodation. This is what Jan recommends and also what I personally and professionally from my own experiences recommend. So first of all you need to state that you are requesting a accommodation under the American with Disabilities Act. Identify the job task that you're having trouble with. If you need to lay that out specifically and then the third thing is identify your idea accommodation okay. So give them some ideas, but also request that the employer provide feedback on ideas as well. So this was kind of a mutual relationship that we're working with on this accommodation. For some examples of accommodations requesting letters, I really want you to take a look at that JAN website at https://askjan.org /media/ accommrequestltr.html. So go check out that website. I think you'll find lots and lots of great information. So the job accommodation network is free. It provides free expert confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability issues. It helps people with disabilities enhance their employability and it can also be utilized to show employers how to capitalize on the value talents of people with disabilities adding them to the workforce. And you will see on this slide again another reference to the JAN website. If you want to call them you can call them at 1-800-526-7234 by voice or by TTY at 1-877-781-9403. So I'm going to bring it back to Stephanie who's going to provide just a brief little section on work, is it possible for me?

>> Hi Tina, it's actually Jayme and Stephanie I hate to interrupt but we're going to ask you a couple of questions real quick before we move on to Stephanie. We have a couple of folks out there wondering about some reasonable accommodations. I also want to address really quickly. I know that a lot of you are looking for Lori's contact information and you can visit Employment Options online at www.myemploymentoptions.com. And that is the employment network that we were talking about. But I hope you all stay here instead of clicking over to that website. So just a few more minutes. So Tina we have somebody out there who wants to know if they can ask for an emotional support animal has a workplace accommodation.

>> Absolutely. Now I will tell you that talking with your employer about this is very very important but it absolutely is a conversation that you can bring up as a reasonable accommodation.

>> Thank you. And if I fill out the form and submit a letter I make my case and my accommodation seems reasonable what should I do if my employer doesn't respond or denies my request?

>> That's a fabulous question. And it happens more than we want it to. There are a couple of different things that you can do. Each state has a protection and advocacy organization that you are more than welcome to access. In Indiana for example it's called iPass. In a lot of the other states it's very similar. There are some EEO or the equal opportunity EEOC through the federal government that you can also use as well. And I'm trying to think of some other sites, but those are my two like go to people I usually talk to. But the one thing I want to encourage, if they deny it don't, don't automatically shut that door. Going back and having additional conversation may actually help get that accommodation approved. Maybe not in the exact format but you might get closer to what you need.

>> Thank you so much Tina. This is kind of related to the [inaudible]. I'm going to go ahead and ask this question now since you are an employment network representative. We have somebody out there asking if ENs can legally ask about your physical and mental health history as part of your intake. How does that work?

>> Well part of the conversation about an employment network is knowing what types of support need to be put in place. What kind of supports you want to help put in place to ensure your success in a job. So I think Lori you said pretty openly that it was a good thing that your employer knew what was going on. While an employer can't specifically say do you have XYZ disability I just encourage you to if you're having questions on whether you should disclose talk to people, talk this out, talk around the plan. An employment network can't, they can ask you those questions but feel also comfortable with that, the information that you provide them. Does that make sense?

>> It sure does, so just making sure that you're happy giving them the information about your disability and comfortable, so.

>> Absolutely. As long as you're okay with it then the EN will handle it appropriately. Okay we are getting close to 4:30 so I am going to hand it back over to Stephanie.

>> Thank you Tina.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you Tina you did a wonderful job. I'm going to quickly kind of go through some of this stuff so that we can get to the resources at the end. But I hope by now you guys know the answer to this question. Work is it possible for me? Absolutely. Yes work is absolutely possible. Lots of people in recovery work in a variety of fields and jobs. It amazes me the amount of people that you probably interact with daily or encounter and you have no idea that they have a disability. It may be a mental health diagnosis or another type of disability. But there are people in all jobs that have disabilities and work. Job accommodations can be made available at most jobs. And as we have seen and heard amazing examples from Tina there are so many job accommodations that can make it easy for you to be successful at your job. It may be assistive technology or it can be something as small as just an extra five minute break that can make a world of difference in somebody's work career and that path towards being successful in keeping a job. Employment programs like the Ticket to Work Program have helped people find and keep jobs. Well I think that we had an amazing example, talk today. Lori so bravely shared her story and so eloquently about how she worked with an employment program and an employment network to find a job and keep a job. And she is one of many many success stories. And I know sometimes you're on the other end of it. We see those success stories daily but you guys don't always have access to seeing those. And I want you to know that there are success stories everyday and you could be one of those success stories.

>> Okay. Again with the yes, work is possible more employers than ever are willing to give people with mental health challenges a chance. And I think even today we heard somebody ask how employers can make things easier and make more accommodations and I think I don't know if that was an employer but employers are becoming more educated and getting more training for employees so that they can better understand what mental health illness is and how they can make working easier for their employees. You may be able to find the kind of job you want more easily than you think. I think that we've laid out some things you know working with resources. You know right now you may not know what that job is that you think you should be in. But there's lots of ways to get you from point A where you are right now to point B, where you want to be in a job successfully working. Remember take advantage of the resources we've talked about today. We're here to help you succeed on your journey to work. We encounter people everyday at all different levels, those that you know are just thinking of working to those who are you know looking at working their way off benefits. They all need those resources in order to succeed. So please utilize everything we've talked about and the resources that we talk about in just a few minutes.

>> Okay great thank you so much Stephanie and Tina and Lori for your wonderful presentations today. As Stephanie mentioned we are going to talk a little bit now about some additional resources. I am going to go back a couple of slides and just say thank you to the Temple University collaborative, a community inclusion of individuals with psychiatric disabilities. A lot of this information came from their fantastic guide on working with mental illness. And you can access that online at http://dit.ly/1rwbxsy. And again a big thank you to Temple University for some of this information. So moving ahead we are going to talk about even more resources. Our first resource today is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They have trained crisis workers available 24 hours a day seven hours a week. If you do call your call is confidential and toll free and it will go to the nearest crisis center in the lifeline national network. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals and they are there to help you if you need them or if you know someone who does need help from them. They can be reached by calling 1-800-273-talk, t-a-l-k which transfers over as 1-800-273-8255. Here is also a National Veterans Crisis line. The phone number is connect veterans in crisis and their families and friends with qualified caring Department of Veterans Affairs responders to a confidential toll free hotline on [inaudible]. If you are veteran and you need their services or you are a family member and would like to call they can be reached at 1-800-273-8255. And when you call that number press one. You can also chat online with them at www.veteranscrisisline.net or by texting 838255. And again all of these messages will be confidential. The Sansa Treatment Referral Help Line provides general information on mental health and also can give you information on local treatment services in your area. You can speak to someone on the phone, a live person Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. And they can be reached at 1-877-726-4727. There are also a couple of national organizations who provide assistance towards mental illness and the first one we'll talk about today is the National Alliance on Mental Illness which is better known as NAMI. They're dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. They advocate for access to service, treatment support and research and are committed to raising awareness and building a surety of hope for all of those in need. You can find the national NAMI website at www.nami.org. And you can find a local chapter online at that website as well. The next national organization is Mental Health America. Mental Health America is a community based network that's dedicated to helping all Americans with mentally healthier lives. They have been around for a century and have more than 300 affiliates all across the country. Some of the things that they do are advocate for changes in policy, educate the public and deliver urgently needed programs and services. And they can be found online at www.mentalhealthamerica.net. And again you can find your local chapter on that website as well. This actually a Ticket to Work resource. We had Tina and Stephanie and Lori talk about several different types of service providers. We have employment networks, CBR agencies with programs and we also have TABS organizations which deal with some of the legal questions you may have. So if you're looking to find somebody like Tina or someone like Stephanie who can help answer your benefit questions or someone like Lori who also works in the employment network you can log onto www.choosework.net/findhelp. And when you go on there you can actually search by your zip code the services that they offer, the types of disabilities that they serve, the languages they speak or the type of provider. So, if you are ready to look for worker right now and you're not an employment network, you can select that from the menu. So we do encourage you to go on there to find help. It's a fantastic first step as you're looking for more information on the Ticket to Work program. We also have another next step for you today. We had a lot of questions come in and it is 4:29. So unfortunately we're not going to be able to get to all of them. But we do have a Ticket to Work helpline. And if your question wasn't answered today or you think of questions in the future, we encourage you to give that help line a call at 1-866-968-7842 for voice or 1-866-833-2967. You can also visit our website at www.choosework.net. In addition we're on lots of social media platforms for Facebook. It's facebook.com/choosework. Twitter.com/chooseworksfa. We're on YouTube. You can see a lot more success stories like Lori's and some that are very different from Lori's. So I would encourage you to go on there and take a look at some of our success story videos. So the link to YouTube is www.youtube.com/choose work. And we're also on LinkedIn and to find us on LinkedIn go to linkedin.com/companies/ticket-to-work. And we are right at 4:30. I want to say a huge thank you to Tina, Stephanie and Lori. You all gave a fantastic presentation today. We have lots of things to note from participants in the audience. So we really hope that you learned some valuable information today and that you'll consider taking those next steps of calling the call center and visiting the help tool and getting some additional information. I do want to let everyone know that there will be a survey popping up on your screen after the webinar. If for some reason it doesn't, it's also online at www.chooseworks.net/surveys [inaudible]. Thank all for attending and best of luck on your journey to work. Have a fantastic day.