Work It Out

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“Joe” is an Army veteran who has always wanted to own his own vehicle detail shop. He started down the path toward gainful employment working as a housekeeping aid at Houston’s Veteran’s Administration (VA) Medical Center. Then there’s “Charley,” who dropped out of the 9th grade to fight for his country in Vietnam and returned to find himself unemployable and homeless. Salvation came in the form of a job as a ranch hand and employers who made him part of the family. Still again, there is “Dave,” an Army veteran diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis, who, in spite of multiple hospitalizations due to both, has found a way to keep his brain in check and hold down a job as a wheelchair repairer for the VA.

Though the names are changed for confidentiality, these are success stories\’97and there are others. Time and again, veterans who suffer from a spectrum of mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-existing physical disabilities, find employment that leads them out of a downward spiral of hospitalization, homelessness and despair. The common denominator is the VA’s Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) program, which works to develop a rehabilitation plan for veterans with mental and physical disabilities, and to match their skills to job opportunities, thus providing the ability to reintegrate more fully into society.

Since Congress established the CWT program in 1984, nearly 70,000 veterans each year reap the benefits of “paid work experience, competitive employment and vocational services,” according to a 2011 statement to the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs given by Dr. Anthony Campinell, director of therapeutic and supported employment programs for the Veterans Health Administration. “Employment is a vitally important personal goal,” he said. “It contributes to a positive self-image and a sense of purpose. One of the best ways to give someone an identity other than being disabled or homeless or mentally ill is to give him [sic] a job.”

Qualified veterans can participate in many different ways, depending on their medical circumstances. Though not all locations offer all programs, each program requires referral from a physician and involves an individual treatment or service plan. The programs are designed to offer an option for nearly every situation.

• Incentive Therapy—provides work experience within the VA medical center for veterans with severe mental illnesses or physical impairments
   
• Sheltered Workshop—a simulated work environment provides opportunity for assessment and skill building
   
• Transitional Work—screens participants for potential work within the VA medical center and/or local businesses
   
• Supported Employment—provides support and workplace accommodations to veterans who possess “significant barriers to competitive work;” accommodations are phased out when the veteran is adapted to employment
   
• Transitional Residence—residential setting for veterans involved with the CWT; offers a professional and peer-based therapeutic community emphasizing personal responsibility; participants contribute to their own residential costs through program earnings
   

Veterans are not the only beneficiaries of the CWT program. In the communities that support the VA facilities, employers can find prescreened semiskilled and skilled labor at competitive compensation rates. There are no employer/employee obligations, including worker’s compensation, health insurance, FICA and vacation or sick time, because these are covered by the CWT. Training is provided at no cost to the employer, and in some cases, such as the Sheltered Workshop program, work is completed in a CWT facility, reducing the demand for employer resources. In many areas, the VA is involved in community building along with the employer partners.

The ultimate goal of the CWT is to provide veterans with valuable experience and to help them integrate into society as active participants.”We find that a majority of persons with a disability want to work,” said Campinell in his 2011 committee statement. “The core philosophy of CWT is that all persons with a disability can work when provided with the necessary supports. And no one should be excluded from the opportunity to participate in meaningful employment.”

Demand for the program is high, though many veterans are unaware of its existence. With continued support from community partners, success stories such as those of “Joe,” “Charley” and “Dave” will hopefully become the norm rather than the exception.

For more information on the Compensated Work Therapy program, or to read more of the program’s success stories, visit va.gov.

College Canes, winner of the Providers’ Choice Bronze Award—sponsored by HomeCare—at Medtrade 2015, utilizes the CWT program at the VA Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan. Parent company Pharma Spec’s College Canes, Mil-Spec Canes and Sustainable Canes are all assembled in the program’s ISO-certified facility.