>> So hi, everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Nancy Boutot. Welcome to the Ticket to Work for People with a Mental Illness Webinar Support on Your Journey to Employment. You can manage your audio today using the audio portion at the top of your screen. It will look like a microphone or it will look like a telephone icon. All attendees will be muted and we encourage you to attend by choosing listen only from the audio menu. This will enable the sound to be broadcast through your computer so please make sure your speakers are turned on and that your headphones are plugged in. Continuing with accessing today's webinar, if you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or if you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial toll-free number at 1-800-832-0736 and the access code for that is 8458462#. For webinar accessibility, we are captioning today. And real-time captioning is provided during this webinar. The captions can be found in the captioning pod which appears below the slides. You can also access captioning online by going to HTPP://www.captionedtext.com/client/event.asps?customerid=846&eventid=3237518. For questions and answers, please use the Q and A pod to submit any questions you have during the webinar and we will direct the questions accordingly during the Q and A portion. If you are listening by phone and not logged into the webinar, you may also ask questions by emailing questions to http://webinars@choosework.net. Please note the webinar is being recorded and the archive will be available within two weeks on the Choose Work website at http://www.choosework.net/webinars-tutorials/webinar-archive.html. If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the Q and A pod to send a message or you can also email us at webinars@choosework.net. So I want to welcome all of our speakers again. I am your moderator, Nancy Boutot with NDI Consulting. We have four wonderful presenters today, Michelle Fassler with Places for People, Keith Heimforth with Employment Resources, Inc., Jessica Reed also with Employment Resources, Inc. and Michael Roush with National Disability Institute. And before I give them introductions, I just want to let you know some of the great topics we're going to be covering today. Include work as a path to recovery, the positive effect of employment and financial wellbeing on your journey to reach your goals, social security disability benefits, work incentives, the Ticket to Work Program, other resources of course, and then questions and answers. We will also try to get to some of your questions during the webinar but we do have a lot of people on the call today and we certainly have a good amount of material to cover but we will do our best. So I will first give a brief bio about all of our speakers and I'm going to start with Michelle Fassler who is the Vocational Services Team Leader at Places for People in St. Louis, Missouri. Michelle and her team use the individualized placement and support model, otherwise known as IPS to assist participants to find and keep jobs. In addition, Michelle is a certified benefits specialist and has worked in Missouri to provide technical assistance and training to partner agencies. Michelle is a member of the NDI Real Economic Impact Network Advisory Committee. Prior to working at Places for People, Michelle worked in various positions in the higher education industry and she holds a Masters of Arts degree in School Counseling. Next, we have Keith Heimforth who works at Employment Resources, Incorporated in Madison, Wisconsin. Keith has been a Work Incentives Benefits Specialist since 1999 and a WIPA Community Work Incentives Coordinator or CWIC since 2012. In addition to his work as a CWIC, Keith is the Program Manager for Wisconsin's WIPA Project. Prior to working at ERI, Keith worked for more than 20 years at Yahara House, a clubhouse model program for adults with serious and persistent mental illness. Jess Reed is a certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Benefits Specialist and certified Peer Specialist. She works in the Comprehensive Community Services Program at Employment Resources, Incorporated. This program provides employment and benefits related services to people with mental health conditions in Dane County, Wisconsin. And last, we have Michael Roush. Michael is the Director of the Real Economic Impact Network at National Disability Institute and serves as a subject matter expert on financial capability strategies for persons with disabilities. Mr. Roush provides training and technical assistance across the country on volunteer income tax assistance, financial education and other asset development strategies to empower individuals, organizations and other stakeholders on the importance of economic self-sufficiency for persons with disabilities. He is an accredited financial counselor, a community partner work incentive counselor and has his Master's degree in Human Behavior. So I want to welcome all of these wonderful presenters today. And Michelle, I will turn it over to you.

>> Oh, thank you, Nancy. I'm so excited to be here today and talk about one of my favorite topics, employment. Let me get going here. So I think back to one of my classes that I took during my graduate work thinking about work is more than a job. And we had a guest speaker and he encouraged us to think about how our society thinks so much about everyone's identity thinking about work. So when you think about the last social event that you went to or family event or when you met a new group of people, and when you met someone, what did they ask you? Do they ask you your favorite book or favorite restaurant? Probably not unless it was a book club or something like that. It's more likely that they asked you what you did for a living. In American society, it's kind of the expectation that adult people work. We start teaching kids very early about jobs. In preschool, you know, we're teaching people toys are leaned towards them and books are leaned towards jobs. So work is really more than a job. Work is our identity. It's what we do. And in thinking about that, work can really be a part of our -- it's how we get through the day. It's what we do. That's why work is more than a job. And it's part of recovery for people with mental illness. The benefits of employment for people with mental illness is well-documented. There are countless studies of how work can be recovery. It's not something that people get after they are recovered. Jobs aren't something that people have to wait for once they do other steps. Work is actually a therapy. Work is an intervention. For those of us that are clinicians, you know, we think of it as -- we hopefully think of it as therapy for people. So if we look at this list here of some of the benefits of work from a clinician's side or from a practitioner's side, many of these are the same things that people might see from medication, or from going to groups, or from going to the day treatment program, or from seeing a therapist. Things like symptom management and reduce anxiety, increase self-esteem. So this is -- it's not just things that we might think about while you go to a job and you get paid. We have a place to go. These are real, true benefits of things that people can get as people are working towards recovery, not just something that comes after. Often, I see case managers who were thinking about referring someone to the program or to another employment program even, and they say, well work can be really stressful. Of course, work is stressful. My work is stressful. Many people's work is stressful. And unemployment is really stressful as well. So we do want to think about that. Unemployment is stressful, work can be really stressful. So for all of these benefits, we do want to recognize that work can be really stressful. And I have support that help me get through work. I have friends and family, people I rely on to deal with the stress of work. I have that at my workplace, outside of the workplace. So I want to recognize that there are programs available to help people living with mental illness, find jobs that match their interests and provide those follow-on supports to work. And Ticket to Work is a perfect example of that. There are a lot of programs out there and Ticket to Work is a great one. People can get connected to unemployment networks to help them find a job, to help them get the benefits counseling that they need to plan the future that they want based on their needs, get access to benefits counseling, learn about the work incentives that are available to them. So as I mentioned, work can be therapeutic. And I have a lot of anecdotal evidence to this, and here's just one really great example. If you have not seen Ellyn Saks -- I've talked about this. Ellyn Saks is a professor and an expert in mental health law and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner. And she and from this example here, she did a -- some research. And from this research, one of the people on the group said this quote. "Work has been an important part of who I am, said an educator in our group. When you become useful to an organization and feel respected in that organization, there is a certain value in belonging there." And this is from the New York Times . And this is not something that's unique to people living with mental illness. This is true of myself or anyone else that I know in their job. When we feel that sense of belonging then we feel value. I have a very recent example of this. In my work, due to some changes in laws here in St. Louis, our minimum wage was going to change. And someone was going to lose their job because of that. And he actually was in my office and talking about how his job had been so beneficial to him in dealing with his feelings of suicide over -- he had worked his job for 10 years so this loss of this job was very important to him. And so thankfully actually, because of the changes in the laws, he's actually not going to lose his job. So that's a very clear example how work was very therapeutic for him. And of course, there's studies and there's research but it's people that have chosen work that are able to really give us that information. And here's just some examples from participants. And this is just one work program that have told us some very simple things that they have done from choosing work. So money -- obviously money is what drives a lot of people to go to work. Money, short term and long term, so people sometimes, they just want a little bit of money to be able to go to the movies, buy some stuff for their grandchildren. But then also that long-term financial stability would also be driving people. People who depend on you, having a routine, being able to know what you're doing from day to day. That is also really important for people. Identity which is how I started on that first slide, really being able to say when people ask them what do you do, having a specific thing that they're able to say. Someone told me, you know, when I was in high school, I didn't want to say, well, I'm going to grow up and have a case manager. They really had -- wanted to be able to say I do this thing. Increased sense of hopefulness and that's really what we all want is to be hopeful about the future. A place to meet friends, skills, independence, community and fulfillment. That one fulfillment was really important to me when someone told me that I think a lot of us no matter what our jobs are, we always are striving to be fulfilled in what we do. And so really having something that we can be fulfilled about is really important. So the four dimensions of recovery is what we use as a framework at my agency and if you're not familiar with that, I'm going to go through that here. So home which obviously is a stable and safe place to live. Purpose -- meaningful daily activities such as jobs, school, volunteering that provides you with income and resources to participate in society. So employment is very clearly that purpose there. Community -- so relationships, social networks that provide support, friendship, love and hope. And health -- overcoming or managing one's condition as well as living in a physically and emotionally healthy way. So employment is clearly number two in these four dimensions of the recovery process. But employment, I've really seen help people work through all four of these. So as I mentioned earlier, employment isn't something that we get at the end of recovery. Hopefully, people are using this to work through this entire recovery process. I'm going to share with you some -- a couple of examples of people who have really used employment to work through the recovery process and how their job or just the job search process has helped them achieve these other dimensions of recovery -- or work towards these other dimensions of recovery. Here are some successful employment for people living with a mental illness. So this is a story about Sarah. And Sarah has been unemployed for several years. She had a young daughter and she was able to work with the employment program to get a job as a maintenance worker at a baseball stadium. She also was living with diabetes and her blood sugar levels were very high and out of range. So once she got her job, she didn't do a lot to change her activity. All that she did was start going to work. So she was very active as a maintenance worker in a baseball stadium because it was large. And start walking to the bus stop and eating a little bit healthier just because she was more active and she didn't have time to snack as much as home. So she was very surprised when her doctor called her to let her know that her A1C had dropped from 12 to six in about six weeks. So she was so thrilled and of course, all of her healthcare team was really thrilled as well. The other really huge part that she was so excited about and just she would light up when she would tell us that now that she had extra money and she was able to pay for the things that she needed. But also she was able to go with her daughter for a girl's day for the first time ever. They had never been able to do that before. And then after working for a while, she no longer needed public benefit which was a really important thing for her because she just felt very proud of herself. So here this was Sarah being able to get that job, improve her health, and do many things that she really wanted to. So this is, I think, just a great example of someone making a lot of steps towards recovery. So she already has that home. She did have that. There were some other things but then she was able to achieve those other parts of her recovery which was really important for her. And it's a great story too. Ben is also an incredible story. Ben had been receiving services for 30 years. And then he decided he wanted to work. And his employment specialist was able to find him a job working just three hours a week at first. And that's another really important part, I think of employment, is that employment doesn't have to start with 20 hours a week or 40 hours a week. You can work with programs to find jobs that really fit you. And so for him, he started with three hours a week and he really made sure that he was able to do it first. And he got benefits counseling to learn what was going to happen to his benefits and then he, with the benefits counselor which in this case was me, we worked up to getting him to this point. But then he started working 35 hours a week and made sure that it worked for him. And so because he was in a situation that he had certain benefits, he was able to double his income. And he started making new friends because now he was in all these different neighborhoods. Then he started dating which had been a really long-term goal for him which was incredible. And it really shocked people that somebody who had been nearly isolated in his apartment for a long time was now out doing these things. And because he had all this money, he was able to move to a new apartment. So now here, he was getting home. He was getting a sense of community. He had this employment and he always had these really important health goals to improve his health. But he wasn't really to do those in a meaningful way because he didn't have the money to really buy the healthier ingredients and to do those things that his nurses were suggesting for him. But now, he was able to do that. He was able to do the healthier shopping that he was really trying to do. So he was really able to hit on four -- those four dimensions just from getting this job which was really important. So Ben had a great story that worked -- really made a lot of changes to his life. And Joy, another great example. Joy was in a group home. She got into the employment program. She had three different jobs before she found really her dream job where she was able to use the computer. She had to check some different stuff. She was able to learn how to ride a bus. Before she did this, her case managers drove her everywhere. Now that she has the extra income, she is able to ride the bus. She is able to use Uber when she doesn't want to ride the bus, which is, you know, a luxury and something that you know, we all want to do. She was able to move out of the group home and move to her own apartment close to her family which was -- it was always hard for them to get to and from her before. So here she is now. She has this office job which was the very first thing she told her employment specialist when she first started working. And she had to go through three jobs to get there. And so that's the other thing. You don't always get the first job that you might want. But it is the process to get there which I think is just a great story because she, you know, she got that new home. She got her sense of community. She got the thing that she wanted and the money. So I think that it's a really important thing to remember that it's a process as well. And people get to recovery from it so it's not just about the job. It's about learning those things about yourself and finding what you need. So that's the stories that we have and how important work can be for recovery. And I think from there, I'm going to hand it off.

>> Wonderful, Michelle. Thank you so very much.

>> Yeah, thank you.

>> Great information, loved hearing the stories about Ben and Sarah and Joy. And great connection there between mental wellness and employment. So thank you very much. And I am going to -- we're now going to talk about the positive effect of employment and financial well-being. And that is going to be Michael Roush. We're going to talk about employment and financial well-being being the key to maintaining a person's basic psychosocial which is pretty much psychological and social needs including things such as inclusion in a group, meaningful work, and maintaining self-esteem. So Michael, I would like to turn it over to you.

>> Great, thank you, Nancy. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today to present on this webinar. I always appreciate the opportunities when I get to talk about a topic that I love which is financial well-being. And as an advocate in this space, I see firsthand on how employment and financial well-being have been and continue to be key in my personal recovery plan but also in the lives of so many others who have a mental health diagnosis. I think it's very fitting that we're having this conversation about employment and financial well-being together and to really show how the two play together as we do make that journey towards employment but also that journey towards recovery as well as resiliency. So today, I'm here to talk to you about financial well-being. So financial well-being is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now, but also in the future. It's important to note as we look at this definition of financial well-being to understand standard of living and to recognize that standard of living has a different definition for each of us. It's what we each need to be able to pay our bills on time, to have the income or other resources to do things that we want to do and often to really help positively impact our quality of life. And what the standard of living might be for me when it comes to financial well-being may be different for you or someone else. So we get to personalize what financial well-being and that standard of living means for us. So why financial well-being is so important? In fact, it has the potential to help individuals improve their economic or financial status. It can help create that standard of living that we want as well as that vision for ourselves. Financial well-being also has the potential to decrease financial stress in an individual's life. Financial well-being creates an opportunity to focus on maintaining a positive quality of life without the financial stress that it might cause. Financial well-being also has the potential to help people -- help people feel like they're part of the community. And I think this goes back to what Michelle was sharing but also the previous slide that Nancy showed is the impact on how it works on a psychosocial need and how inclusion in a group helps us to enhance those basic needs. So an example is we have additional resources, additional money and a friend calls us up and says I want to go bowling or I want to go out to dinner. Having those financial resources allows us the opportunity to participate and be a part of the community. Financial well-being also has the potential to positively impact an individual's quality of life experience. So having the financial resources allows us to do the things that we enjoy doing like a hobby, traveling, or splurging on an item that we really enjoy but may not be able to afford all the time due to the high cost. The condition of financial well-being has the potential to positively impact so many areas of our lives. So to help us achieve financial well-being, we need to increase our knowledge and our skills about our finances and our money. And employment is a key tool for us to access to achieve financial well-being but the other tool is also understanding and accessing financial education. And I'm going to stop for just a minute. [Inaudible] might be having a technical difficulty. The slides are not appearing.

>> Michael, this is Nancy. While that's -- while that's happening, I apologize for that. But we had a question that I was going to ask when you're done. It was actually going back to something Michelle said. So just to make sure that we've got our AV back, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask Michelle -- the phone went [inaudible]. Oh, can you hear me?

>> I hope -- I can. This -- did you set the telephone ringing? Okay, ask the question. Sorry about that.

>> Right, no problem. I'm not quite sure what happened there either. We apologize. So my question is for Michelle and the question that I have for you, Michelle, that came in is, in the examples that you gave of Ben and Joy, in those examples, did the person no longer have their mental health condition?

>> They still have their mental health condition. But it can, you know, we never know what's going to happen. They may -- they're still receiving treatment from our community mental health center. I'm trying to think -- sort of quickly think of what's going on with them, not that I don't see or hear but -- they still are receiving treatment from our community mental health center and working with, you know, they may be working with the therapist. They may be working with case managers but you know, they've just gotten to a point where they may need less of that. But that's the -- for different people, work can really help them need more or less of that. You know, different people just are different. So and people come to us at different points. Some people are still getting a lot of help and some people are getting less. But they definitely still have their mental health condition. They just start at a point where they are able to go out and work, yeah. I hope that answered that. That was hopefully clear. I'm thinking [inaudible].

>> That was [inaudible]. It does [inaudible].

>> A lot of what it [inaudible] in my head right now. I'm beginning to [inaudible] these different people flooding my head where you know, some people -- some people are still -- are doing really well when they go to work and some people are not doing as well but when they go to work, they're able to do okay. And work just really helps them with it, yeah.

>> Great, thank you very much.

>> I'm just very glad it's [inaudible]. Yeah, it's very good. It's like any health condition. Some people have diabetes and go to work and, you know, so -- yeah.

>> Great. Thank you very much. And with that, Michael, I'll turn it back over to you.

>> Great, perfect. Can you hear me okay, to make sure we're all back to normal.

>> Yes.

>> Great, okay, excellent. So as I mentioned, when we look at the tools to help build financial well-being, employment is a key piece. We need employment. We need wages. We need the income, right, to help us achieve that. Another tool -- another strategy that we need to understand is financial execution. And we're -- what are the pieces of financial education? So financial education is the gaining of knowledge and skills to understand one's financial matters or to understand how much money we have to spend each month to build that standard of living that we want? So you might be wondering what are key topics covered in financial education programs? So here are some sample topics covered in financial education. So budgeting and spending plans -- it is important for us to create a spending plan. A spending plan allows us to know how much money I have coming in and do I have enough money to cover all of my expenses at the end of the month as well as do I have the resources, the money available to build the life that we want? Creating a spending plan also allows us the opportunity to possibly decrease the monthly expenses but it also provides us with insight where we might want to increase or enhance our employment status so we can cover all of our expenses so we can also create that life that we want. Thinking of another key topic in financial education, the idea with banking is am I using a checking or savings account effectively to keep my money safe? Savings is another key topic. Having the resources that allow me to pay for an unexpected emergency or to save money to purchase an item that I might want, or that I might need. Credit is another topic of financial education. And credit is important because it's the ability for an individual to attain goods or services before the payment. So this likely is based on the idea that the payment will be made in the future. Debt management is another key topic and understanding how to successfully pay our debts and strategies on how to get out of debt if we have substantial debt. Investing is another topic, the opportunity for my money to grow -- or what I like to say is that it's an opportunity for my money to hopefully make a profit. And rent versus home ownership is another key topic within financial education. And really understanding which situation is right for me and which situation can I afford and being able to put my money to work to potentially build -- to build assets. These are only a sample of topics covered in financial education. And each are important for us to understand and put the information we learn into positive action. Once we learn the information, it's important for us to put it into action to help us achieve financial well-being. Later in this presentation, I'm going to share with you some free resources including a financial education program that you can access online for free. For free -- so stay tuned for that. My final thought to share with you is that when we increase our knowledge and skills around our money, whether it be income from a job or other resources, and we put that knowledge and skills into positive action. Financial well-being can be achieved and help play an important role in our journey towards recovery and really resiliency but also to help us build new opportunities towards a life of work, a life of savings, and a life of asset development. Thank you and Nancy, I'll now turn it back over to you.

>> Thank you, Michael. That was great information. And we look forward to you coming back on and talking about some of the resources that you have for us. Okay, so with that, we are going to move on to slide 26 and I am going to turn it over to Keith and Jess who will be taking us through the next several slides.

>> Thanks, Nancy. And thanks also for the opportunity to be a part of this WISE event. So I'm going to talk very briefly about the disability benefit programs that are administered by the Social Security Administration. And I'm going to stay very general because pretty quickly, these can get quite complicated. So next slide, social security disability benefits -- people with disabilities, as most of you on the call know, have to go through a very involved and often very long process to be found eligible for disability benefits. Sometimes, this takes a year, or two years, or even longer. And a [inaudible] part of the process is proving to Social Security that you cannot work or at least you cannot work or earn more than a very small amount. Then once you're approved for benefits, a benefits specialist like me comes along and says, hey, want to go to work? You can do that, you know. Well, that's a bit of a mixed message and the first response is often, no. I finally got the benefits I need and I'm afraid if I work, I'll lose the payments and the medical insurance that I depend on. But I know and all the research shows that the vast majority of people with disabilities do, in fact, want to work. And in 30 years, I have not met one person with a disability who is not capable of competitive meaningful and well-paid work, if given the right job and supports. So [inaudible] just a glimpse that you can, in fact, work and be better off financially but you can keep your medical insurance and even your disability payments until you are ready to end them. So first, a brief explanation of these programs. The next slide -- social security disability insurance. These are SSDI. These are payments based on work, on past work either yours or a parent's when FICA taxes were paid. FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes. People who get SSDI have earned that benefit. Like any other insurance, you pay, and pay, and pay and when you need it, it's there for you. It doesn't matter what assets you have or what other non-work income you might get. And notice that I'm stressing the word insurance for SSDI and the reason for that will become clear soon. SSDI comes with Medicare health insurance after two years for most people. And this is the same Medicare that people get when they turn 65 years old. Next slide -- a benefit that sounds very similar but could hardly be more different is SSI or Supplemental Security Income. This is for people with disabilities who have not worked enough or not recently enough who have paid enough in FICA taxes to be insured for SSDI. And notice that I'm stressing the other words supplemental and income. This is a needs-based program. The more -- the lower your income is, the more that SSI will supplement it. And the more income you have then the less SSI you're going to receive. You can only have $2000 in counted assets to stay eligible for SSI. And in most states, SSI comes with Medicaid health insurance. And this is also called Medical Assistance or MA. So the next -- a person can have just SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance or just SSI, Supplemental Security Income or both. And these programs and the health insurance that come with them sound so much alike but they have very different rules and aspects because SSDI is an insurance payment while SSI is a payment to supplement your income. It's very important to know which of these benefits you receive, SSDI or SSI or both, because earnings from work will affect them differently. If you don't know which of these you get and many people don't or they're not sure, contact your Social Security Office to find out. Next -- both the SSDI and SSI programs have social work incentives built into them. And these are special rules that Social Security has for people with disabilities to encourage them to try work or to do what they need to prepare for work. And to be able to do those things without the financial and health insurance rug being pulled out from under them. Next -- these work incentives can help you do a number of things. They can help you receive training for new skills. They can help you improve the skills you already have. They can help you pursue an education perhaps with an eye to trying a different jobs or to starting a career. They can also help you gain confidence in your ability to work and move ahead with life. Next -- some of the most commonly used work incentives include the earned income exclusion. This is an SSI work incentive where Social Security will only count half of your earnings when deciding how much of a payment you get. So as you earn more, your SSI payment goes down but it doesn't go down by as much as you earn. And you end up with more income by working. Protection from medical reviews, everyone with a disability benefit is required from time to time to have their medical condition reviewed to see if it's still disabling. Jess is going to talk about Ticket to Work which is a Social Security program that can put those reviews on hold for a person in either the SSI or the SSDI program. Trial work period -- this is an SSDI work incentive and it's nine months where you can earn any amount and still receive your payment. And as I said, this only comes with the SSDI benefit. Continuation of Medicare coverage -- this also is an SSDI benefit because that's the benefit that Medicare comes with is SSDI. When you earn enough to stop your SSDI payments, the health insurance that comes with SSDI, Medicare, will continue for some period of time. It could be quite a number of years. Continued Medicaid eligibility that's sometimes referred to by the legal name in the law that was passed, 1619(b) -- this is an SSI work incentive such that when you earn enough so that your SSI payment goes to zero, you still get to keep your Medicaid. And you can keep it until your earnings are quite high. It varies from state to state but I think in all states at this point, it's more than $30 or $33,000 per year before you could lose your Medicaid eligibility. And the final one, I just want to mention here is expedited reinstatement. This is a work incentive that can allow you to get back on benefits within five years if the benefit ended due to earnings and you have the same disability. So all of these together can help a person to have the confidence that they can move forward with employment, without losing the safety net that they had to go through so much to get in the first place. There's a lot more work incentives available. To find out more about them, you can get a Social Security Red Book and it literally is a red book that you can access either at the Social Security website which is ssa.gov and you can get a hard copy. You can order a hard copy from there or you can get a person to download an electronic version. And another way to find out about benefits specialists as was mentioned before is to contact the benefits specialist. I think anyone going to work with a Social Security disability benefit needs to consult with a benefits specialist so that you can go to work smart and be better off by working and not worse off. There's a lot of ways to find one but every state at least has a work incentives planning and assistance or WIPA program that provides a benefits specialist. You can find out about the one in your state by calling 1-866-968-7842 or for teaching live, it's 866-833-2967 and this is a Ticket to Work help line that will connect you with someone in the WIPA program, if you want and there's other information about Ticket to Work as well. And you can also find out about the WIPA project in your state online at www.choosework, C-H-O-O-S-E-W-O-R-K.net. So next slides -- sorry, I forgot to keep mentioning my own going to different slides. Sorry, Nancy. I'm going to turn it over to Jess now to talk more about why choosing work can be so important in recovery and resilience and about another way that Social Security [inaudible] work about the Ticket to Work program.

>> Okay, thanks Keith. So hopefully, we're on the why choose work slide 33. There are a lot of different reasons that people with any type of disability or without disability at all choose work. As was mentioned before, financial security is a big part of that. There's also gaining independence and increased social circle, learning new skills, and increasing self-esteem. All of these are meaningful things and part of an adult role in our society. I certainly am a person who identifies as having a mental health condition and have had my own experience in recovery and work. And it's been a really positive thing for me. I now work full time and I'm financially independent. I terminated all benefits many years ago. I have a lot of really great co-workers that I do social stuff with. Along my path that I'll talk more about later, I've learned a lot of new skills and I feel better about myself. Everybody needs a place to go and something to do and a purpose. And work really makes a difference for me. So next slide -- is the next step is the Ticket to Work program. So next slide, starting the journey. You're the only one who can decide if work is the right choice for you. I definitely always encourage people to consider paid work for all its benefits that increase self-esteem, financial security, just having that meaningful work in your life that helps you both have that purpose and then to enjoy the time you have to yourself as well. So next slide. What is the Ticket to Work program? It's a free voluntary Social Security program that offers career development for people aged 18 through 64 who receive Social Security disability benefits either SSI or SSDI. And it offers other social -- other services and supports including benefits counseling that can be through the WIPA project that Keith mentioned, through another agency or sometimes employment networks offer benefits counseling that's associated with the Ticket to Work program. And you can find more information about employment networks at the Ticket to Work website which is www.choosework -- C-H-O-O-S-E-W-O-R-K.net. Next slide. So the next step is gathering information and resources that are key to planning your journey towards employment. And Ticket to Work and work incentives can help make your journey a smooth one. For me, when I first got defective health in my mid-20s, I had always been working. But really needed more support at that point in my life. And I was able to move forward very quickly, finished my Master's in Library Science and go on to work as a librarian for several years. Then and I had had benefits and terminated from cash payments but kept my health insurance. Then I decided to retrain and I retrained as a benefits specialist and then as a rehabilitation counselor. I am also a certified peer specialist which is someone who uses their own mental health recovery to help others move forward with theirs. I provide a lot of employment benefits counseling as part of my current job. And I feel really lucky to get to do what I do. I didn't do any of this without supportive planning. I used the clubhouse model for support while I was working on my recovery. And no longer need that level of support but it's there if I need it. There's also assertive community treatment, other forms of case management and supportive employment programs. So there are resources out there for people to get the help they need to be successful. And a good place to find resources, if you aren't aware of what is in your particular area is the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI at NAMI -- N-A-M-I.org or the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance at dbsa.org. They have a lot of information about recovery in general and different types of resources and what might be the right fit for you. As I moved along with my recovery -- as I said, I don't need anywhere near the level of support but benefits counseling was a huge piece of moving forward that I knew what was going to happen and I had planned for it and that's really where I wanted to go. I was ready to move forward. So next slide. Elements of successful recovery. Recovery involves many different elements and supports. It's not linear. It's not time limited. It has its ups and downs and it's different for each person. So you could visit www.choosework.net so www.choosework.net/findhelp/ to search for the right service provider for you. And for many people, they use employment networks to use that Ticket to Work which, by coincidence, using work incentives over the course of my recovery, I did use my ticket through vocational rehabilitation which provided some training which helped me move forward in my career path. And again, know and use the supports that are available in your community. They're not always the easiest to find but they're out there and there are people who care and will help. Job success is a team effort. None of us exist in a vacuum. That's true whether you have a mental health condition or not. I have a husband, and a family and friends, and co-workers who helped support me just as everybody listening on this call has somebody important in their life. And employment is often a key element in recovery. I certainly come from the mindset that I wouldn't force anyone to work certainly but that it's such an important part of recovery for all the different reasons -- financial well-being, social supports and making friends, having a purpose, that adult role in our society. There are all sorts of good reasons to work and I know that the idea of what happens with my benefits can be scary. But with benefits counseling, you have the information to make good choices for you. Next slide, for more information, call the Ticket to Work help line at 1-866-968-7842 or the TTY line at 1-866-833-2967 or you can visit http://www.ssa.gov/work. Thanks.

>> Thank you so much, Keith and Jess. Great information and we have had some questions that have come in while the two of you have been doing your presentation. The first one goes to you, Jess. Something that you just mentioned was a clubhouse model. Can you explain what the clubhouse model is?

>> The clubhouse model started in New York City back in the '40s with some people who had been diagnosed with mental health conditions who didn't want to just sit around anymore. I believe they were playing cards. And they got some help from philanthropic organizations and now it's this international clubhouse organization that the focus is on the work ordered days. So the members and they are patients or the clients, their members come and help do all the work involved in the running of the clubhouse. There are staff workers or resource workers. They sometimes have different names who help members with their recovery but it's often very much the members who help each other and work is always a focus. I began working very, very quickly after joining a clubhouse. They have some temporary work positions that they can place people into directly or help people gain independent competitive employment or support with education.

>> Great information, thank you so much. In keeping with Ticket to Work and one of the questions that we have, either for you, Keith or you, Jess. Are there any employment networks that can provide me with counseling service to assist with my mental health needs?

>> Not that I know.

>> Well, I mean, I think the employment networks provide a variety of different services. There's really a range of what they provide and to know what is provided where, you really need to investigate each individual one. But my expectation is that most employment networks do not directly provide that kind of counseling. Rather, they would serve the function of trying to connect you with resources in your community that would serve that function. But others may have -- I'm not the most experienced in knowing about the various employment networks. So other people in the call may have better or certainly more information on that.

>> Well, so Keith, thank you for that. There's another question that's related and I think this will be helpful to folks. Are there any tools that can help me find an employment network that's right for me?

>> In fact, there are. There's one site Keith is pulling up. Can't you find the [inaudible]?

>> I think so in [inaudible] for this.

>> Yeah, W-W-W-.-C-H-O-O-S-E-DOT-W-O-R-K-DOT-N-E-T -- so www.choosework.net. And there's a phone number too. The Ticket to Work help line at 866-968-7842 or TTY at 866-833-2967.

>> And there's a find help tool located at that website. Does that answer what you're looking for, Nancy?

>> Yeah, that's great. Wonderful, thank you very much. Good answers. We appreciate that. Michael Roush, we also have a couple of questions that came in regarding financial education. And one of them is counseling. Is there any counseling that is there to assist people with changing their financial behavior?

>> Sure, great. So Nancy, just to make sure I'm clear so it's asking how to locate a counselor to help with their finances?

>> Well, that would be -- so that would be even better. I think the question was just are those types of services available? So I guess you're saying yes, they are. So yeah, that would be wonderful.

>> Great, great. Yes, that's exactly are resources that are available in the majority of community. And one of the things that's important to note is as you're starting to look at someone who could help you talk about your finances with you, look at your situation, help you create a spending plan -- you could look for a financial coach because we have financial coaches but they may also have financial counselors. And so financial coaches are usually set up with a community-based organization and within communities, you get help to find one if there's one in your area by contacting United Way and/or contacting 211. A financial coach would be able to assist you in looking at what is your ultimate goal that you would like to achieve and help coach you and guide you to achieving those particular financial goals that you have, whether you want to create a spending plan, reduce debt, enhance your credit score, things like that. So contact 211 in your local area or your United Way or you can also contact your community action agency within your area and ask them if they have a financial coach available.

>> Thank you so much, Michael. So we're going to move on to resources but before that, we've got a great question that came in that I'd like to address and it could be either Michelle or it could go to Jess, or both of you could take a turn answering it. I think it's a really great question. The question is, mental illness can be unpredictable. What advice do you have for someone who might able to work now but might not be able to work sometime in the future? And any thoughts from either --

>> This is just -- definitely, that is part of many health conditions, including mental health conditions, that there are going to be ups and downs. And the key part is having those supports in place that you need and knowing what resources are available to support you both -- you know, your natural supports like your family and your friends. Or more formal supports like a therapist or psychiatrist. And doing that work while moving forward with recovery has those in place, so that when you need them they're there. And with the benefits counseling piece -- you know, I know and I know other have used it knowing what's going to happen and that there's a wave expedited reinstatement to potentially get back on your benefits quickly. And that's just one work incentive.

>> Thanks Jess. Anything else Michelle, before we go on?

>> Yeah. I think there's that financial piece and then, there's, you know, like day to day piece. So we often do a thing -- so a lot people have heard of WRAP plans, Wellness, Recovery, Action, Plans. And we do those actually for work. So people can have those, you know, what's going to happen? And that. And then, another piece, thinking about in supportive employment programs where we work really closely with employers so people thinking -- just thinking like that. So I have people where employers call me a year or two later when they know something's happening with someone so we can make plans. You know the employers know people -- now we're no longer in the picture with the person's employment journey. But the employer's there and they now are providing a lot of those supports that were -- the employment specialists were before. And so, they are doing that and they're -- then they get back in contact with us. So just thinking about employment programs as well, and how much you might want an employment specialist to be involved with an employer and creating that plan as well. So sometimes people don't want to disclose disabilities to employers. But sometimes it's really important to think about you might do that and not wait until you have that time where, oh now there's a problem. So thinking very thoughtfully about how you might do that so that you can flex in and out of those bad times and preserve a job or things like that. I think that's just a really important conversation to have with yourself and people that are helping you with your employment.

>> Great. Thank you very much Michelle and Jess. All right. So were going to split up some of our resources now. We've got several to offer you. And that is going to start with Michael Roush, who has a few really good resources to share with us.

>> Great. Thank you Nancy. So as I mentioned in my previous remarks I have identified some resources here, and tools, that I find to make a positive impact on that journey to achieve financial wellbeing. The first resource is a suggestion, and I hope you all are doing this or will do this, is to subscribe to the Choose Work Blog. The series of Choose Work Blog has some great articles on financial wellbeing, resources, and tools. And I was fortunately asked to write one last month for National Financial Literacy Month that has additional resources that people can access. So check out the blog. And you can do that http://bit.ly /SubscribeSW. The next tool resource is spending diary. This simple tool allows us to keep track of our spending each day. If you have not kept a spending diary, I challenge you to go out and keep a spending diary. The goal here is to keep a spending diary for each day for four weeks so that you can see where your money goes and what you're spending your money on. And there are certain things that you might be able to decrease or take out. I do a spending diary on a yearly basis, particularly when I fell off track with my spending. And this tool can really help you get back on track and see where your money goes. So you can access the spending diary tool at www.realeconomicimpact.org/financial-education/financial-education-toolkit. The next resource is MyMoney.gov. This website has several great tools and resources to help us understand more about our money. The other thing that I like about this website is it provides quizzes and online assessments that I'm allowed to kind of see where my financial habits are and how I can improve that. Again this website is at www.mymoney.gov. The other resource to talk about is, earlier on I mentioned about financial education program that you can access that's free. And one of my favorites is Money Smart. And Money Smart [inaudible] out by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or often as FDIC. And Money Smart is a financial education program that's designed to help low and moderate income individuals increase their financial skills and create positive banking relationships. There are a variety of modules that you can access and activities that you can complete, you can access this online for free or you can order a CD with the curriculum on it and it's also free. If you want to learn more about banking, spending plans, credit, homeownership, or if your employment goal is self-employment guess what? They have a version specific -- a version of many [inaudible] specifically on how to start and manage a small business. Again, all of these resources are free and on the FDIC's website, and you can find that at http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/moneysmart/index.html, a great resource to access, to learn more on different financial education topics. The last financial wellbeing resource that I would like to share is through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mission is make markets for consumer's financial products and services work for Americans. Whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products, like a bank account or a credit card -- a number of other consumer products. And you can access this information that they have at http://www.consumerfinance.gov. They have great resources and tools that, again, are free to access. One of my favorite tools to check out is called Behind On Go, start with one step. This booklet provides tools to help one budget their money, looks at needs versus wants, and debt management. And it provides the clear steps that individuals can walk through to enhance their financial wellbeing and to get back on track on paying their bills. They have many more tools you can access online. And I encourage you to check it out. And again, these are free resources that you can access and you can order copies of the different tools and they will ship them to your house. So with that Nancy, I think those were the key resources, financial education resources. I think I'll turn it back over to you.

>> Thank you so much Michael. Great information. And we are going to continue with our resources. And I'm going to talk about JAN, which is the Job Accommodation Network. We've talked about them before and most likely we will be having them present some time for us in the summer, about job accommodations. JAN provides free expert confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability issues. JAN helps people with disabilities and enhances their employability, and JAN shows employers how to capitalize on the value and talent that disabilities add to the workforce. So to get more information you can go to www.askjan.org or you can all them at 1-800-526-7234, or TTY 1-877-781-9403. We also have some mental health specific resources for you today, and the first one that I would like to talk about is the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Which the phone number is 1-800-273-TALK, also 8255. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline has trained crisis workers that are available to talk 24 hours a day seven days a week. Your confidential and toll-free call goes to the nearest crisis center in the Lifeline National Network. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals. The website is www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Or you can also call them, again as I mentioned at 1-800-273-TALK which translates to 1-800-273-8255. If we have any veterans on the call the call today -- on the webinar today, we have a resource specific to you veterans. And that is the Veterans Crisis Line, which is 1-800-273-8255 and then, you press one. And then, what the Veterans Crisis Line does is connect veterans in crisis and their families and friends with qualified Department of Veterans Affairs responders through a confidential toll-free hotline as well as online chat or text. So you might also text 838255 to receive confidential support. The website for the Veterans Crisis Line is www.veteranscrisisline.net, that's veteranscrisisline.net. And again, the phone number is 1-800-273-8255 and then, press one. Another resource that we have is SAMHSA, which is Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And the -- SAMHSA has a treatment referral helpline or general help and to locate treatment services in your area. You can call their number; speak to a live person Monday through Friday, 8:00AM to 8:00PM Eastern Standard Time. Their website is 1-877-SAMHSA7. So again, that's 1-877-SAMHSA7 which translates to 1-877-726-4727. We had one of our speakers mention this earlier, NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. And NAMI is dedicated to building better lives for millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI advocates for access to support services, treatment, supports and research, and is committed to raising awareness and building a community of hope for all of those in need. And you can visit them by going to NAMI's website at www.nami, N-A-M-I.org or you can call the NAMI helpline at 1-800-950-6264. And yet another resource that we have for you is Mental Health America. And Mental Health America is a community-based network dedicated to helping all Americans live mentally healthier lives. They a century of service and over more than 300 affiliates across the country. And Mental Health America advocates for changes in policy, educates the public, and delivers urgently needed programs and services. And you can go to their website by going to www.mentalhealthamerica.net. So before we move on to our final closing slides, we do have one question that has come in several times. And Keith or Jess, maybe you could explain this a little bit. When you talked about expedited reinstatement before, Keith, could you talk a little bit more about expedited reinstatements?

>> Sure. I'll be real brief. Expedited reinstatement is for someone who has lost complete eligibility for social security disability programs. They're no longer in the SSDI orSSI program, including the extended period of Medicare or the -- continuing Medicaid. And you can access this if you've been working along, you worked so well, you earned enough to go off benefits, and went on for a year, two years, three years. Any time within five years after your benefits terminated --

>> Because of work.

>> -- because of work. Good point. Yeah. Not because of a medical review but because of work. If your benefits terminated you can ask social security to restart your benefits under expedited reinstatement. If you can no longer earn at the substantial level because of your disability -- it doesn't matter why you lost the job, that matter is that now because of my disability I can no longer earned the substantial level, which this year is $1170 of gross earnings per month. Social security will start your benefits back up and then, they'll do a medical review to see if you have [inaudible] disability. And if you do then your benefits continue. So that's the basic outline. There's lot more to it but I think those are the essentials that people need to know. If not I guarantee -- but my experience it has worked very, very well for pretty much everyone that I thought was in that circumstance where they lost benefits due to their earnings, they can't earn that substantial level anymore, they have -- because of their disability, and they still have the same disability and their benefits did continue. Could I add one thing? I'm glad to -- my mic unmuted because in response to the Club House question before, Jess and I wanted to give the website for the Club House International, to see if you're interested in finding out more or finding out if there's a Club House near you. It's http://clubhouse-intl.org. So it spells out Club House, C-L-U-B H-O-U-S-E-dash-I-N-T-L, for international, dot O-R-G.

>> That's great. Thank you, Keith. We did have a couple of other questions that came in that people wanted to know more about the Club House model. So I'm glad that you were able to get that website to everyone. I appreciate it. Wow, this is so wonderful, I don't want it to come to an end. But I am going to start talking about where everyone on the phone can get more information. And for more information for anything that you heard today or to get more information on the ticket please call the Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7842, or TTY, 1-866-833-2967, TTY. Or you can visit http://www.ssa.gov /work. Please connect with us. You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com /choosework. You can follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com /chooseworkSSA. We also have a YouTube channel and you can watch Ticket to Work videos on YouTube by going to http://www.youtube.com/choosework. And you can also follow us on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com /company/ticket-to-work. We would certainly love for everyone to join us next month. We will be having our next Ticket to Work Wise Webinar on Wednesday, June 28th, 2017 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. You can register online at http://www.choosework.net/wise. That link will be active in the next 15 minutes. Or you can call 1-866-968-7842, or for TTY, 1-866-833-2967. We certainly fit in a lot of questions today. We are sorry that we don't have time for more. We do appreciate all of your questions. And please remember to tell us what you think, and take our webinar survey. A link will pop up after the webinar, or you can visit www.choosework.net /surveys/wise. Thank you very much, and we'll talk to you next month. Bye. [Inaudible] with me.