Current Events > Anyone ever been in an assisted living space for the mentally ill?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What has your experience been like?

I think its about time i get out from under my parents roof because it is causing me more problems than solving. Me and my father are butting heads too often and i need to learn to be on my own.

I figured an assisted living area would be a good place to start to slowly try and figure out what to do for work and transitioning from being disabled to back in the work force. How to get on my feet realistically.

I do not know if anyone has a better plan. The problem i have right now is i cannot find work that does not feel like overwhelming pressure where an employer also provides the accomodations i need in order to thrive. Learning about god has taught me that i need to have faith, but it is hard to trust people too. Its the living situation that has always given me problems, i could never make enough money to sustain myself in a way where i was not constantly hustling to the point that i could not be myself at my job. So maybe this assisted living space can eventually find me a section 8 apartment and i can get by with the bare essentials ya know. The point is, i need a place to stay and i need something with stability.

I just dont trust this system and how flimsy it is to be in the workforce unless i am doing something essential that also has a good earning potential. The trades seem like a good option for me since i have a felony, but even the local unions seem like a gamble to me. I just need peace of mind because otherwise i get psychotic, end up in the hospital and lose everything.

What would you do?

Are you in the USA? I was in the state of Illinois last week, and almost everybody was hiring employees. It seemed the me that there are many jobs available right now

Keep in mind that you can start at minimum wage, but after a few months, you can get a raise or promotion. If your employer refuses to raise you, on to the next one!

Most jobs have upward mobility. My mother says that it's a good idea to start in the mail room of a building, and work your way up

I've been to one but not as a resident. It was uncomfortable and the staff apparently weren't the best to the patients

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TrollTrace posted...

a section 8 apartment

I believe that was Dawkins/XSquaders area of expertise. But he's been gone for awhile.

TrollTrace posted...

an assisted living area

I think that would be the last place you would want to go. But I know nothing about them.

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xue1 posted...

Are you in the USA? I was in the state of Illinois last week, and almost everybody was hiring employees. It seemed the me that there are many jobs available right now

Keep in mind that you can start at minimum wage, but after a few months, you can get a raise or promotion. If your employer refuses to raise you, on to the next one!

Most jobs have upward mobility. My mother says that it's a good idea to start in the mail room of a building, and work your way up

I live in illinois, yes. The work force has not been kind to me, they always exploit the new guys and i need them to provide benefits right off the bat so i can not flip out at how absolutely crappy everything is run. The whole system is a sham, i dont know how you guys can just work at jobs, stick it out even though it is awful until you save up enough to get you through the next few months as you try to find another job that does not suck. At that point there is no difference between living in an assisted living environment where they provide food, shelter, medication and charge your insurance and take a bit of your disability money.

I work in a Skilled Nursing Facility, yes.

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yunalenne10 posted...

I work in a Skilled Nursing Facility, yes.

Do you guys provide a way out for people from there to transition to section 8 housing(or something like it) by helping them with the process? cuz i have noticed the only way to get on any actual subsidized housing plan is to eat dirt for quite awhile while a facility does your paperwork and uses their connections to find you a spot. I wish i had more of an interest in working but the work force is garbage imo ive tried it, did not find any good folk in there to actually guide me on how to be a part of the workforce. So i ended up with a mental illness because nobody explained to me the values of working.

TrollTrace posted...

Do you guys provide a way out for people from there to transition to section 8 housing(or something like it) by helping them with the process? cuz i have noticed the only way to get on any actual subsidized housing plan is to eat dirt for quite awhile while a facility does your paperwork and uses their connections to find you a spot. I wish i had more of an interest in working but the work force is garbage imo ive tried it, did not find any good folk in there to actually guide me on how to be a part of the workforce. So i ended up with a mental illness because nobody explained to me the values of working.

We have Social Workers and Case Managers that work with their discharge planning and their insurance.

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yunalenne10 posted...

We have Social Workers and Case Managers that work with their discharge planning and their insurance.

How does that work? You end up finding them their own housing solutions through their health insurance?

How long can a process like this typically take?

I have yes, but not the kind that you're describing. From the title, I was thinking of residential facilities that provide care and supervision for mentally ill adults that need assistance with their day to day lives. Those facilities don't provide the residents with help finding section 8 housing, because they wouldn't be able to live on their own.

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From my understanding these skilled nursing facilities rehabilitate people for the real world. Here is the problem with that, lets use me as an example, i get $850 roughly per month, if i make more than $200 i actually start getting charged for health services, that means a spend down from my prescription drug plan and my dr visits. In this particular case making money actually hurts me more than helps me. I am not entirely sure why the system is made this way but i need therapy, i need my meds, and i need to see my drs, it just so happens that every job you get right off the bat will not offer direct benefits nor give you the time to actually take care of your health if you have a pre existing condition like i do, the only way that happens is if you get a very high position in a company which is pretty much impossible for a felon or a person with a pre existing mental illness. So how am i supposed to afford housing without having to resort to moving to a town in the middle of nowhere if i have grown up my whole life here in the suburbs of chicago and have family here? You see, they make it virtually impossible for anyone not to relapse or fall into recidivism when you take into consideration the state of the actual work force where around half of them if not more are high functioning alcoholics. I mean its silly because it almost seems to me like in order for someone to actually be rehabilitated and reintegrate back into society somebody else has to fall victim to evil, its never a state of actual improvement because if it was the resources that led to the resurgance are removed which starts the cycle again.

You need to have affordable housing for the mentally ill and those with other pre existing conditions. You need to allow them to work without punishing them for making too much money too.

Like do the social workers not know that throwing someone into a job full time after they got sober and got off of medications is not a recipe for disaster or do they just not care? The pressures that come from full time work that fall onto someone who has not been in the work force in years is immense and requires the facilitation of an occupational therapist or work therapist in general.

Like you cant throw me right into full time work if i get rehabilitated, the likelihood of me just saying to hell with this and getting right back on disability and claiming depression or something like that is seriously high.

Thats what i do not understand, i had offers for good jobs whilst disabled but none have offered benefits right off the bat, none have promised something like unemployment insurance through an actual fund of the company and not state unemployment benefits which precovid absolutely suck. So why would i get off of disability where i scratch my balls all day or work for cash and make some extra money and join everyone else when yall who were blessed to get decent jobs make it anightmare for someone like me to actually work legit?

And not just that, you're the ones calling the shots too on everything that matters. Its not like the sick have any say in their treatment, often times we have to go for the lowest hanging fruit. God forbid i did not have my parents i would be even worse off. Then you guys have actual discussions about this like you are going to solve the issues, if you actually solved them you would be out of a job. I have not seen many folks take the high road of sacrificing their lifestyle in the sense of income generated to actually solve the problems of society. And thats what is sad, because you literally need to be blessed by god and find a good person who takes pity on you for you to even qualify for something like rental assistance, subsidized housing, section 8 etc. People like me who people are afraid of because i have a behavioral disorder are honestly terrified by regular people like yourselves who are a part of this system and are perfectly healthy but dont use the platforms that exist and your influence to make the world better. They say im the monster.