The intersection between poverty and disability runs throughout all domains of one’s life. While the traditional course of action in treating mental illness and substance use has been medically-based, and more recently recovery-based, little attention has been paid to the effects that living on public benefits has on one’s mental health. This ATTC-NYAPRS Costly Price of Benefits Learning Collaborative will focus on employment as the “therapeutic intervention” in helping people recover from mental illness
and substance use. Using the “Costly Price of Benefits” curriculum, providers will learn to embed employment into the very fabric of their organizational culture.