V v v. V V V V V " v V VI V V V N. V V
VVt-'Vt'VV.' V
' V "V v V
market
j II -
I JOB
Second n t two-part series on
By Lucy Lien
Even if you are a healthy,
acceptable community member
with salable job skills, with
the unemployment rate at 5 per
cent, it's difficult finding a job.
If you have been mentally ill,
and especially if you have been
hospitalized for your illness,
your difficulties in finding Work
may be doubled or tripled, You
will have to fight a stigma of
being "a crazy", may not have
salable job skills, and may not
have social skills needed to get
contacts.
The stresses of finding a job
will just add to your stresses in
finding friends and killing
boredom. '
In seeking out a job you will
have to go through not only the
usual problems in job inter
viewing, but will also have to
conquer employer prejudice
against a former mental patient.
( f l R
HU
LJ U i .... J
TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
WITH ANY PURCHASE OF
YOU CAN SELECT AN EQUIVALENT AMOUNT
OF MERCHANDISE FREE'
SELECT FROM ANYTHING IN THE STORE.
JULY 2 & 3 ONLY (Tuai. & Wed.)
Jjkademia
1127 R
A Reference &
0
r
nAcifiTovE
rciadice Obvious
An employment counselor at
the State Employment Agency
said that there is obvious
prejudice against former
mental patients. These feelings
come out more openly, she said,
"in times like right now, with so
many people seeking work."
She said that one bad
experience with a former
patient can ruin an employer's
willingness to hire any other
ex-patients. Many times the
employer believes "the patients
will have a fit or something,"
she said. This prejudice is.
almost entirely unjustified, she
said.
The label of mentally ill on a
person often makes employers
cautious about hiring that
person. Job adjustment prob
lems after hiring, said Ellie
Shore, a Nebraska vocational
rehabilitation counselor, are
not nearly as great as the initial
hardship of conquering dis
crimination. $3.00 OR MORE,
Prclessional Book SfKip
Little Bo West
u,
iv mm w m w w mm, mm m a y
Groat Rock Show -
fl
July
V,
4.
SNAKE &
0 " 20 I
Evcii after & patient iiaS ucrefi
hired, she said, he may be
under more pressure and
watched more closely than an
average worker.
"Employers must become
more understanding, must take
more risks," she said, "And any
risks they take are all in their
own minds.
"I sometimes wonder," she
said, "if after they get the job
they won't be watched like a
bomb about to go off." :
Stigma Exists
Sometimes the stigma a
gainst the ex-patient may be in
his own mind,' according to
Charles Richardson, M.D.,
director of the Lincoln
Lancaster mental health clinic.
There probably is some
stigma, he said, but it may be
justified. "If I was hiring a
secretary who's records in
dicated that he or she became
ill frequently I would hesitate
about hiring that person."
He said, "there is un
doubtedly a tendency to see
mental illness as dangerous.
When talking to potential
employers, the question often
comes up, Ts he dangerous?'"
However, a patient often
prejudices his own case, he
said. Frequently ex-patients
lack confidence in their own
abilities.
"Too often." he said, "Ex
patients go into interviews flat
and unspontaneous. Too often
the fact of former hospitali
zation is used as a rationaliza
tion for the fact that they can't
get a job."
He said, "patients may put
everyth jsg into the basket of 'I
couldn't find a job because I
was an ex-mental patient,'
rather than acknowledging that
he hasn't shaved 'or has bad
breath." If I can develop a
comfortable excuse for my
shortcomings, I'm going to be
rather reluctant to give it up."
Job Training
Also, many former patients
may have trouble finding a job,
not specifically because of
suspected or actual employer
prejudice, but because of
conditions ' related to their
illness. They may be retarded,
physically handicapped, or lack
the emotional stability neces
sary to hold down well-paying
and responsible jobs.
Patients who have not
obtained job skills prior to
hospitalization may receive
some vocational training from
the Nebraska Vocational Re-
tho ARMPITS
..V......V.V. klV
According to J. Michael
Sprague, director of voc rehab
at the Lincoln Regional Center,
there are some funds available
for patients who wish to
complete their high school
educations or to receive further
education in business or com
puter schools. Limited funds
are available if a patient wishes
to attend college classes.
Patients may also receive
training in home management
training courses in cooking,
In the hot weather, one woman
found relief by wading on a
sidewalk that had just been
sprinkled.
Fund set up
for memorial
A scholarship fund in honor
of a pioneer Pawnee County
couple, the late John and Ruth
Goodrich Tomek, has been
established at the University of
Nebraska Foundation by their
son, Dr. William G, Tomek,
professor of agricultural eco
nomics at Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y.
Preference will be given to
students from Pawnee and
Custer Counties.
Professor Tomek said he was
endowing a memorial scholar
ship "because of the strong
support my parents gave me in
obtaining a college education
and the substantial debt I feel I
owe to the University of
Nebraska,"
His mother born in
Sargent in 1894 and died in
Pawnee City in 1954. His
father, a native of Czechoslo
vakia, died in Lincoln in 1973,
after spending 80 years of his
life in and near Table Rock.
Dr. Tomek earned his Bach
elor's degree in 1906 and his
Master of Arts degree in 1S57,
both in agricultural economics
from the University.
Mellcrdrammer
tryouls to be held
Theatre Inc. cf Lincoln will
hold open tryouts for its fourth
and final.Mel!crdrammer of the
season at The Gas Light
Theatre, 322 South 9th Street,
Lincoln, Nebraska on Monday
and Tuesday, July 8 and 9 from
6:00 till 8:00 p.m.
This is a musical entitled "No
Sooner Won Than Wed". '
rehab).
r "7i ;Ii H
I iU
I Ml: fn
i i i n
E I t -4
I J -
( t 3
i !-r
i. jN
I i$ j i
1 J
(,T" v. 1 :4
rr nnrl IflllTwIrV,
Low skilled Training
The job training that most
patients receive, he said, is for
low-skilled jobs. For one thing,
many patients lack the emo
tional or intelligence levels
needed for highly skilled jobs.
. In addition, Sprague said,
the two most successful areas
in which to find jobs are in food
service and janitorial work. As
a result, most patients at the
regional centers receive train
ing in these two areas.
. The only sheltered workshop
(for mental patients) in the
state is at the Lincoln Regional
Center. Here patients may
work at a hair clip factory. The
work is basically assembly and
production work, where pa
tients place hair clips on cards,
count up cards and work in the
shipping area.
Patients working at the
sheltered workshop are paid
according to how much work is
done and according to the
minimum wage.
Patients may also develop
job skills by working at the
canteen on the grounds, but
this work is unpaid.
Although job training is also
available for patients coming to
local health clinics, it is not
usually needed with, these
patients. Many of these pa
tients have received their job
skills elsewhere.
Adjustment Problems
Ms. Shore noted that with
the out-patients the problem is
not so much with the lack of
skills, but with the need for
adjustments. "They might have
janitorinl skills but not know
things such as that they should
not talk loudly on the job," she
said.
Mildred Katz, director of
volunteer services at the
Lincoln Lancaster Clinic, said
that "the more skills a person
has, whether they're social or
job skills, the easier it would be
for he or she to move back into
the community."
Patients, especially at the
clinics, do receive counseling in
grooming and social skills.
If the patient has good social
skills, and if he "has good job
skills," said Mrs. Katz, "he or
she would be able to get any
job, (as long as he doesn't run
for vice president)."
Even if a patient can find a
job, however, he may not be
able to find the job he wants.
Discrimination
At this time, Tom Matthews,
(names of patients have been
changed) is fighting federal
discrimination through the
Nebraska Civil Liberties Union
(NCLU). Although he was
offered another job by the
federal government, because of
his past mental history he was
fired from the job he once held
and desired to keep.
The job, as a federal
protective officer, requires the
wearing of a gun. Hunter's
mental illness, however, shows
a history of depression. There
was no history of hallucinations,
irrational behavior or violence.
In addition, his psychiatrist has
told him that he is now in good
mental health.
He said that he had held a
government job with the
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) before being offered
the protective officer job and he
had always been open about his
former illness when applying
for jobs.
When the government fired
him from the officer job on the
grounds of his past illness, he
appealed his firing, and was
only then told he could have
another federal job as long as it
didn't require the handling of a
gun.
(Continued on Page 3)
tuesday, July 2, 1374
summer nebratkart
4 m... f m
' , .
, a ,r . 4 4 4 0 0 - ,