Frequently Asked Questions
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Do I need a diagnosis to access services?
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A person does not need to have an official diagnosis; however, in order to access services, your mental health has an impact on your ability to gain and maintain employment. For example: for some, experiencing a depressive episode may have an impact on motivation, making it challenging in seeking employment.
Can you get me a job?
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The Let's Work Team's expertise can help inform, plan, and support in various employment skills and current techniques towards your employment goal. The success of being part of this program and becoming meaningfully employed depends on a mutual teamwork approach between yourself and your Let's Work Employment Counsellor. That being said, if the employment action plan is not producing desired results, we can shift & pivot our plan, and even discuss accessing wage subsidy programs to help secure employment.
What is an employment action plan?
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An employment action plan is a tool that outlines your employment goals and objectives while working with Let’s Work and the steps required to achieve them. We can work with you to determine your goals and objectives, and together make into individualized manageable steps.
What does “workforce ready” mean?
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Let's Work believes that all persons are employable; and often the key is working together to define individual parameters, and finding the right fit in an employer. Let's Work perceives that work can bring Quality to a person's life. and that most individuals can be “work ready” with proper supports in place, as needed. Workforce readiness to us means that individuals are willing to work collaboratively with us and take the necessary steps to move forward with their employment goals.
What if I don’t know what I want to do for work?
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If you do not know what you want to do, our Let's Work team's expertise can support that:
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We can work with you to assess what types of work you might be interested in, skills exploration, combined with what fits with any mental health barriers that may present.
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We can discuss making appropriate referrals to add more layers of community support; to explore in-depth career decision making, and we can client share to ensure meet all facets of the employment goals
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How do you help individuals with mental health barriers through your services?
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Firstly, we are educated and experienced in working with individuals who have mental health concerns. We provide empathy and understanding in all aspects of client services. We are committed to establishing a safe, inclusive and trauma-informed space.
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Secondly, we are able to tailor each employment plan to the mental health needs of the individual obtaining services. We take into account vocational interests combined with what fits well with the impact your current mental health has or might have in the workplace. The employment action plan also takes into account your mental health needs.
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We can meet more regularly than other employment services; and thus can provide an extra level of support while fostering independence as well. .
What happens if I do not meet the requirements for services?
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There are a few reasons that someone might not meet the criteria for services:
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If you are living with another disability (i.e., physical, intellectual, developmental, etc.) that impacts your ability to work more prominently than your mental health, we will refer you to the appropriate Employment Assistance Service (EAS) provider in the community.
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If you are frequently experiencing mental health crises we recommend focusing on your safety and wellbeing before job searching.
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Should I come early for my appointment?
While we appreciate making the habit for early arrival, we do have multiple appointments a day and as such, if you come early will we not typically be able to see you until your appointment time.
What accommodations can you provide?
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Accommodations during our service can be made in a number of ways.
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Having someone you are comfortable with come with you to the appointments can be helpful. We do encourage eventually transitioning out of having a third party involved to help you become accustomed to engaging with others on your own and completing tasks independently; something that will be expected in a workplace.
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We can discuss how to support persons in submitting resumes or during interviews; if it is deemed the individual requires that support.
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If there is a particular pronoun you are more comfortable working with, we will be inclusive of that.
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Any other potentially accommodations can be accessed or requested and negotiated with a Let’s Work team member.
Do you do job placements?
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We can connect with employers and advocate on your behalf, however, the focus of the Let’s Work program is to train valuable job searching skills and to support your ability to find employment as independently as possible. We can discuss the option of wage-subsidy programs, however, to be eligible for those programs you have to establish a strong job search and employment goal.
What happens if I miss appointments?
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We appreciate being let know in advance that you are unable to make your appointment, and will reschedule the appointment with you. We also understand that things come up and you are not always able to provide notice.
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If you are missing appointments consistently (3 or more) we will check-in with you to understand what is going on that is keeping you from attending appointments.
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If making appointments is not possible for you for whatever reason that is ok. We simply ask that you let us know and we can put your file on hold until you are able to make appointments.
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If you do not let us know after 3 appointments missed and no contact we will close your file.
Can you help with transportation?
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We have access to a limited number of bus tickets that can be used to come to appointments or go to an interview/first days of the job.
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We have the appropriate insurance to be able to drive individuals to interviews if transportation or mental health is a barrier (i.e. social anxiety).
Do you talk to my employer?
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We would discuss the option of contacting your employer, to see if that is the best plan of action. We would never contact your employer without your explicit, informed consent. We understand that while some people are open to discussing their mental health, others are not as much; and we would never disclose any information that you have agreed to beforehand.
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If talking to your employer is something that you think would be beneficial (e.g. requesting accomodations, communication barriers, mediating a conflict, helping the employer to understand your mental health needs) your Employment Counsellor would have an in-depth conversation with you about what exactly you are comfortable with us discussing with your employer and get a specific consent form signed for that specific purpose.
Can you help me be better at job interviews?
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Absolutely! our Let's Work team can share our expertise around current interviewing techniques, how to go about answering certain questions and discuss disclosure around your mental health.
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We have a number of resources to help you develop your interviewing skills.
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We also can do mock interviews (phone, virtual and in-person) with you as well; and provide feedback.