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Self-Employment for People with Psychiatric Disabilities: Advantages and Strategies
Laysha Ostrow1, Patricia B Nemec2, Carina Smith3
1Live & Learn, Inc., Morro Bay, CA, USA. laysha@livelearninc.net.
The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research
|May 31, 2018
Summary
Self-employment offers a path for individuals with psychiatric disabilities to increase workforce participation. Despite policy support, it remains an underutilized employment option for this population.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Vocational Rehabilitation
- Entrepreneurship Studies
Background:
- Self-employment provides an alternative to traditional wage employment for individuals facing barriers.
- People with psychiatric disabilities often have disrupted educational and employment histories, impacting their career choices.
- The recovery model in mental health emphasizes individual preferences, resilience, and perseverance, aligning with entrepreneurial values.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the benefits of self-employment for individuals with psychiatric disabilities.
- To analyze why self-employment is underutilized despite supportive policies.
- To offer recommendations for increasing self-employment opportunities for this demographic.
Main Methods:
- This is a commentary discussing the advantages and challenges of self-employment.
- It analyzes existing vocational rehabilitation and Social Security disability policies.
- It draws upon larger trends in entrepreneurship to inform recommendations.
Main Results:
- Self-employment offers advantages such as self-care, increased earnings, and career choice for people with psychiatric disabilities.
- Despite policy encouragement, self-employment represents a small fraction of employment outcomes for this group.
- Barriers to self-employment for individuals with psychiatric disabilities are not fully addressed by current policies.
Conclusions:
- Self-employment aligns with recovery principles and offers significant benefits for individuals with psychiatric disabilities.
- There is a need to better leverage self-employment as a viable vocational outcome.
- Recommendations are provided to enhance support for entrepreneurship among people with psychiatric disabilities.
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