The Working Life: College and Educational Opportunities

As you explore college and other educational opportunities, schedule an appointment with yourself, and sit down and examine your strengths and weaknesses and brainstorm the things you'll need to have in place to follow-through on this goal. Work around your weaknesses, and focus on your natural abilities and talents.

If you are able to express the readiness to make a change in your life such as school or work, you are on your way to realizing that dream. The whole of success comes down to two things: desire, and persistence. If you want something, you deserve to try, and try again.

Your treatment team should support your decision to go to school or work, and it's their job to help you combat any obstacles to your goal. Best practices vocational rehabilitation involves offering clients competitive or supported employment rather than sheltered or unpaid work, rapid placement into paid community employment versus undergoing a lengthy prevocational training period, and ongoing vocational support after obtaining a job.

Often, people with SZ have persistent negative symptoms, or depression, and low self-esteem, so such programs need to be tailored to these dynamics, because the literature indicates when people with schizophrenia are treated the same way as people with other MIs, their rates of success aren't as high. As far back as 1990, Mancuso suggested the idea of altering the job and not just the worker is inherent in the concept of reasonable accommodations mandated by the ADA Act. It was believed that the legislation's support for job task and environment modifications could be useful for people with SZ.

Whether before employment or after, those of us living with this medical condition need to take stock of where we've been, assess the tools we've used to get here, and remember that to be self-aware and have insight into what sets us off, will enable us to consider school or work and develop coping skills to use in these new environments.

The good news is, Eli Lilly [the drug company that manufactures Zyprexa] offers the Reintegration Scholarship. Upwards of 70 people each year are awarded money so that they can attain a certificate or degree. Eligible programs include: high school equivalency programs, trade or vocational school programs, associate degrees, bachelor degrees, and graduate degrees. Noncredit, online and distance learning courses are not covered. The scholarship funds are able to be used on tuition, textbooks, and lab fees. Log on to www.reintegration.com for more information and to download an application. In order to be eligible for consideration, you must be diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizophreniform, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder.

Once in college or university, your school will have an organization specifically devoted to students with disabilities, as my CUNY alma mater did when I was getting my BA. The ADA Act also governs education. You may need to take tests in a quiet area, or be given more time to take a test, among other reasonable accommodations. Ask for them if you need them.