Season 2
Supported Employment and Mental Health Recovery
Employment is important for mental health recovery. This conversation with Joni Dolce, Employment Specialist and Trainer at Rutgers University, highlights the value of work for people living with serious mental illness.
Hosts & Guests
Dr. Michelle Zechner
Joni Dolce (Special Guest – See bio below).
Resources
Individual Placement & Support (IPS) Works
https://ipsworks.org/
Rutgers Integrated Employment Institute
https://iei.rutgers.edu/
NeC-MHTTC, Supported Employment
https://mhttcnetwork.org/centers/northeast-caribbean-mhttc/supported-employment-se
NeC-MHTTC, Supported Employment (SE) and Supported Education (SEd)
https://mhttcnetwork.org/centers/northeast-caribbean-mhttc/product/area-focus-supported-employment-se-and-supported
SAMHSA, Supported Employment Evidence-Based Practices Kit
https://store.samhsa.gov/product/Supported-Employment-Evidence-Based-Practices-EBP-Kit/SMA08-4364
Takeaways From This Episode
Recovering after a mental health crisis takes time and support. One thing that actually helps many people get back to their lives is meaningful employment and work. Work is a positive thing for people living with mental health conditions. Research shows that when people with mental illness work it offers so many benefits in different areas of their lives such as self-esteem, housing stability, financial wellness, hope and their overall quality of life. This podcast highlights the benefits of work for people with serious mental illness, describes the Individual Placement and Support model of supported employment, offers practical tips for supporting employment and gives listener some additional resources about how to learn more.
Supported employment programs help people find work and keep the job of their choice. In the past, we may have believed that work made people’s mental health symptoms get worse, and that people with mental health conditions needed to gradually introduce work, conduct lengthy assessments, and help people practice work skills before actually working using step-wise strategies. This might mean a person would go to groups to talk about work and then go to a so-called ‘sheltered workshop’ where many service recipients gathered to practice work skills. Supported employment, and the IPS model in particular, demonstrates that a “place/train” strategy is the most helpful in getting people with mental illness back to work, meaning that people select a job and then receive training on that real-world job to help them succeed at that job.
Employment Specialists, or mental health staff with specialized experience helping people get back to meaningful work in the real world, can offer tailored support to get people with mental illness back into the workforce. But, there are things that we can all do to help people with mental health conditions get a job. Some practical suggestions include talking to them about work, offer hope and inspiration to get back to work, and support their desire to work.
One of the most powerful quotes on this topic comes from Psychiatric Rehabilitation pioneer Joe Marrone who said “If you think work is bad for people with mental illness, what about poverty, unemployment, and social isolation?” Join us for a discussion about the importance of work for mental health recovery.
Special Guest

Joni Dolce, MS, CRC
Assistant Professor and Employment Consultant
Joni Dolce, M.S., CRC has many years of experience working in behavioral health services, specifically Supported Employment (SE), providing both direct services and SE program management. She has authored and co-authored several articles and workbooks on employment and presents and provides webinars and trainings locally and nationally on a variety of employment related topics. Joni has been invited to present to Human Resource professionals on the topic of mental health in the workplace and is listed as a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommended speaker on this topic. She is a current member of SAMHSA’s Technology Transfer Center’s Dissemination and Implementation working group and is a past President of the National Rehabilitation Association’s NJ affiliate chapter and a past Secretary of the NJ Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.
Stay Connected
The Northeast & Caribbean MHTTC served New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands and was based at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, within the School of Health Professions, Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions.
During this time period, the organization provided essential training, technical assistance, and resource dissemination to support and enhance the mental health workforce.
With funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the MHTTC collaborated with organizations and practitioners providing mental health services to enhance their capacity for delivering effective, evidence-based interventions.
This site is now part of the Northeast and Carribean MHTTC ARCHIVE.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation & Counseling Professions
675 Hoes Lane West
8th Floor
Piscataway, NJ 08854
Dr. Ann Murphy
murphyaa@shp.rutgers.edu