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Frequently Asked Questions

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Do I need a diagnosis to access services?

  • No, you do not need an official diagnosis of mental illness. However, in order to access services, your mental health has to have some impact on your ability to gain and maintain employment. For example: for some, experiencing a depressive episode can have an impact on motivation, making it difficult to look for employment.

Can you get me a job?

  • No. We can help guide, teach, and train you in various employment skills and techniques with the goal of boosting your chances at being offered a position. The success of being part of this program and becoming employed depends on how much time and energy you put into your job search. “Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they live for a lifetime.” That being said, if the employment action plan is not producing desired results and you have been putting positive energies into your job search, we can access wage subsidy programs to help secure employment.

What is an employment action plan?

  • An employment action plan is an intervention 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 then break these down into manageable steps. This plan is individualized to meet the needs of those accessing services

What does “workforce ready” mean?

  • Expanding on the definition of workforce readiness outlined in our program overview, we believe that most individuals are “work ready” with proper supports in place. Workforce readiness to us means that individuals are willing to work collaboratively with us and take the necessary steps to move forward with their job search/employment goals.

What if I don’t know what I want to do for work?

  • If you do not know what you want to do there are two options:

    •  We can work with you to assess what types of work you might be interested in combined with what fits with any mental health barriers you may have.

    • We could refer you to an employment counsellor at the Department of Post-secondary, Education, Training, and Labour (PETL) who specialize in in-depth career decision making. We can still share your case with the employment counsellor at PETL. You case manager would simply have a conversation with the employment counsellor to outline our roles so as not to double up on services.

How do you help individuals with mental health barriers through your services?

  • 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, trauma-informed space.

  • 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. For example, an individual who has difficulty focusing due to hyperactivity might benefit from a detailed task-list during the job search.

  • We can meet more regularly than other employment specialists and thus can provide an extra level of support without creating dependency.

What happens if I do not meet the requirements for services?

  • There are a few reasons that someone might not meet the criteria for services:

    • 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.

    • If you are frequently experiencing mental health crises we recommend focusing on your safety and wellbeing before job searching.

Should I come early for my appointment?

  • No. While we appreciate the sentiment of wanting to be early, 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?

  • Accommodations during our service can be made in a number of ways.

  • 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.

  • We can accompany individuals to drop off resumes or during interviews if the individual requires that support. We would go over the pros and cons of having a Let’s Work staff involved.

  • If there is a particular gender you are more comfortable working with, we will do our best to accommodate (if possible).

  • Any other potentially accommodations can be accessed or requested and negotiated with a Let’s Work team member.

Do you do job placements?

  • No. 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 on your own. We do have access to 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?

  • If you let us know in advance that you are unable to make your appointment we will reschedule the appointment with you. We also understand that things come up and you are not always able to provide notice.

  • 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 your appointments.

  • 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.

  • If you do not let us know after 3 appointments missed and no contact we will close your file.

Can you help with transportation?

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • Only if you would like us to. 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 and we would never disclose any information that you are not comfortable.

  • If talking to your employer is something that you think would be beneficial (e.g. mediating a conflict, helping the employer to understand your mental health needs) your case manager 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?

  • Absolutely! We can help train you in interviewing techniques, how to go about answering certain questions and how to disclose about your mental health in the interview if you chose.  

  • We have a number of resources to help you develop your interviewing skills.

  • We also can do mock interviews with you as well.

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