Individual Placement Services

Meet Pamela

To qualify for IPS you need county case management and documented mental illness.

 

Job Placements have included:

 

• Customer Service Representatives
• Human Resources
• Accounting
• Clerical
• Retail /Market
• Information
• Visual Arts
• Education

 

 

Service Area includes:

 

• Blue Earth County
• Brown County
• LeSueur County
• Nicollet County
• Sibley County

 

Individual Placements and Supports (IPS) is an evidence-based practice that helps people with serious mental illness to work in regular jobs related to their work preferences.

 

IPS uses eight principles to guide the services it provides:

 

1. Every person who wants to work is eligible

People are not excluded for reasons such as legal history, symptoms of mental illness, decisions about treatment, substance use disorder, cognitive disorders, homelessness or unstable housing, or past problems with employment.

 

2. Competitive jobs are the goal

Employment specialists help their people find regular jobs in the community.

 

3. IPS Services are integrated with mental health treatment

Mental health treatment teams might consist of case mangers, counselors, housing staff, psychiatrists, therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, and employment specialists.

 

4. Personalized benefits planning is provided

Each person participating in IPS is offered the opportunity to learn how his or her benefits would be affected by earned income.

 

5. The job search starts soon after a person expresses interest in working

In IPS people are not asked to complete any prevocational activities.  Within 30 days of a first meeting with an employment specialist the job seeker and employment specialist has    in-person contact with an employer to talk about jobs.

 

6. Employment Specialists build relationships with employers based upon   their clients’ work preferences

Employment specialists make multiple in-person visits to employers to learn about their business needs.

 

7. Individual job supports are unlimited

Supports are customized to the person’s preference and individual needs.

 

8. Client preferences are honored

IPS drives to empower people. Not to tell them where they must work or what types of services they must receive. Employment specialists try to understand what is most important to each person and what motivates each person.

Meet Althea

About a quarter of the population will face a mental health issue in any given year (Psychology Today). Of that number, it is estimated half go untreated. Althea Leonard is one of those counted in that number.

 

“I had an abusive childhood,” she says. “And did not get help to address its effects on me when I was young. So as an adult it all came to a boiling point and I had a breakdown.”

 

Because of the mental breakdown, the mom of three found herself suddenly single and had to leave her job as a tenured librarian in 2011.

 

In May 2011 she went through intensive residential therapy. It was very helpful to her and once through with that she slowly started getting her life back. The process started with volunteering at the Power Up Clubhouse. A program of the South Central Community-Based Initiative, the Clubhouse has a mission to enable adults with mental health needs to achieve and maintain their highest level of functioning and independence. Power Up is for anyone with SPMI (Serious and Persistent Mental Illness) and is 18 and older.

 

 

 

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