Summit Objectives and Outcomes

November 15–17, 2009 • Astor Crowne Plaza • New Orleans, Louisiana

Summit Purpose:

To improve awareness and build momentum for the Ticket to Work Program in the Mental Health Community.

Key Summit Themes:

• Recovery is strengthened by work.
• By becoming an Employment Network (EN), organizations receive a new revenue stream to support expansion of services.

Objectives:

• Provide attendees with Ticket to Work and Work Incentives training to assist beneficiaries with serious mental illness in their return to work;
• Increase and improve tools and supports to link beneficiaries with serious mental illness to partners available to support them in returning to work;
• Ensure attendees have information on Ticket to Work procedures for application and operation in order to facilitate them becoming ENs;
• Educate mental health community that overall goal of Ticket to Work is to move beneficiaries to recover to self-sufficiency;
• Effectively communicate message that beneficiaries can work and keep their health care benefits; and,
• Clarify partnership between Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of Employment Support Programs for improved Ticket success in the mental health community.

Desired Outcomes:

• Dispel negative perceptions of the Ticket program;
• Provide a unified national message for mental health partners;
• Identify and engage key mental health partner/s in each state and region to train other community partners on the services available to beneficiaries seeking support to work;
• Increase communication network for mental health partners;
• Understand CMS training to integrate into Ticket to Work training;
• One year after the Summit, double the number of ENs that exclusively serve beneficiaries with serious mental illness; and,
• Increase numbers of beneficiaries assigning tickets, finding work and acquiring an improved quality of life.

Ticket to Work is a voluntary employment program for people with disabilities administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The Ticket program offers disability beneficiaries age 18 through 64 expanded opportunities to obtain the services and supports that they need to work and to achieve their employment goals. SSA does this by paying providers of services, referred to as “Employment Networks” or “ENs”, for assisting beneficiaries to reach designated Milestones and Outcomes associated with achieving self-supporting employment. An EN can be any agency or organization that provides or is equipped to provide employment-related services and supports to individuals who have disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities. For more information regarding the Ticket to Work program, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions web page.