Serious Career Development for Youth with Serious Mental Health Conditions

Serious Career Development for Youth with Serious Mental Health Conditions is organized by Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Foundation (PRF).

Opens: April 5, 2018
Closes: August 31, 2024

Description:
This course focuses on strategies that promote and support meaningful roles for youth with mental health challenges in the educational and employment arenas.  School and work involvement are critical for youth with disabilities in forming healthier identities, developing resilience, and avoiding a lifetime of poverty and marginalization.  The common barriers for many TAY in accessing and progressing at school and work will be identified, and interventions for overcoming them will be shared.  How to productively apply a Stages of Change (Prochaska and DiClemente) framework to assess youth work readiness and target stage-specific interventions will be presented.  The importance of active benefits counseling and recognizing the potential impact of disability determinations on TAY is also discussed.

Learning Objectives:
• Increase a sense of hope and self-efficacy in both youths and in helping professionals.
• Explain the essential role that education and employment play in promoting resilience and recovery, and avoidance of a lifetime of poverty and marginalization.
• Assess functional barriers to successful education and employment and effectively collaborate with youth to overcome them.
• Reduce frustration by applying Career Readiness (Stages of Change) and matching appropriate interventions to the corresponding stage.