Hope & Practicality from Elisabeth – Elisabeth (Harney) Sanders-Park is co-author of No One Is Unemployable, The WorkNet Model and the WorkNet curriculum, and President of WorkNet Solutions

Isn’t it ironic… for so many people who might get labeled “difficult” when it’s our job to help them begin and succeed in careers, or at least maintain the appearance of searching for a job, lack of employment is not the most important problem.

Over the years, I’ve worked with people for whom mental health, family stability, physical health or safety, maintaining housing or sobriety, or staying out of prison are more important. And yet the solution so many of us are offering is employment. If the problem is mental illness, domestic violence, homelessness or addiction, clearly employment is not the solution… or is it? No, and yes. Employment isn’t the immediate solution for mental illness; it won’t help, and it could hurt. This is also true for domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse, and living on the street. Searching for and starting a new job is a challenging and stressful endeavor for many of us… it won’t make you mentally stable; however, once mental illness is stabilized, employment can help sustain it. If a person doesn’t know where they’re going to sleep tonight or eat and shower tomorrow, job searching and starting to work won’t help; but once a person has shelter, work can certainly help them keep it! Employment is often not the most important problem facing difficult clients, but it can be part of the solution.

When you ask most people what is most important to them, they generally start with family, faith, community, and their passions, not work. Perhaps in another time or another place, we could devote ourselves to our passions without the distraction of having to make a living, but most of us must also figure out how to pay for it… that’s where employment comes in. So, employment is important, but usually not most important. Lately, I’ve been thinking of it like this… imagine life’s journey as a brick road that leads to our dreams or a house that represents what we want in life.

The most important stuff in a person’s life… their faith, a desire to stay out of prison, their children’s future, proving someone wrong, are the “bricks.” And employment is the glue that holds it all together. Over the last 15 years, I’ve seen many people get stable in terms of housing, sobriety, or mental health… only to lose it all when they can’t maintain an income. I’ve watched people choose new relationships, get their children back, come to faith, vow never to return to prison, or otherwise change their lives… only to see it all slip away when they can’t find work. Studies show that drug abuse, criminal behavior, and family violence decrease when people are working. And we can all share stories of the positive, stabilizing effect employment has had in the lives of people we know.

Work may not be the most important thing in life, but it seems to be the glorious glue that holds together so many of the others bricks of life that are important. Which means, people who haven’t got time to even think about making work work may need it most of all.

So part of dealing with difficult clients is realizing that so often employment is neither the primary problem nor the most effective solution, and that we need to deal with the “bricks of life.” Here are a few no-cost resources that can help your clients get stable before they dive into a full-time job search.

www.servicelocator.com connects you and your clients with more than 3100 workforce centers across the U.S., many of which offer special services to non-custodial parents in errars for unpaid child support, people with disabilities and criminal convictions, various resources for housing, mental and physical illness, and more.

www.salvationarmyusa.org connects you with the nearest Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers which offer residential recovery from drugs & alcohol at no cost to participants.

www.agrm.org/missions.html allows you to locate rescue missions near you, which offer shelter as well as a variety of services for men and women, including drug and alcohol recovery, domestic violence assistance, counseling, spiritual and personal growth, employment assistance, and more.

www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov directs you to free mental health care services in your area.

Hopefully, these ideas and resources will make some of your difficult clients less difficult, and allow you both to focus your partnership on employment… the glorious glue that so beautifully holds together the many important “bricks of life.” I wish you joy and success. Keep in touch and let me know how I can help.

Photo by Fey Ilyas