LONDON – Five staff at Regional Mental Health London are doing what they can to prepare the last of their 60 remaining clients for the closure of Andrew’s Resource Centre – a workshop that provides basic employment and helps individuals with mental illness to seek jobs in the broader community.
In recent weeks they have been helping clients with resumes, organizing job fairs and polishing up their interview skills knowing it’s going to get a lot tougher for these individuals when the centre closes its doors for the last time at the end of March.
It’s not easy to get a job when you have a severe mental illness and the five staff worry that many of their clients will become isolated when they no longer have the centre to come to.
A friend, a job, a home – these are the building blocks for successful rehabilitation, yet two of three of these blocks are now at risk.
None of the five staff even think to talk about their own futures. Between them they have about 200 years of experience, but amid a growing mental health crisis they too are being told their work is no longer needed.
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