Improving the Employment Prospects of People with Serious Mental Illness: Five Challenges for a National Mental Health Strategy

A mental health plan that embodies recovery would be designed to ensure full and equitable participation in important social roles, such as work, as one of its primary goals. A plan to achieve this goal in the workplace requires (i) clearly defining paid work in the community plus the right to fair employment standards and career opportunities, (ii) combating the stigma associated with serious mental illness, (iii) creating job accommodations to promote the full expression of an individual s strengths and abilities, (iv) examining financial disincentives to paid employment, and (v) researching the optimal infrastructure and funding to support participatory models that are applicable within grassroots initiatives.