Person centered funding: Using vouchers and personal budgets to support recovery and employment for people with psychiatric disabilities

Abstract

Alternate funding arrangements such as personal budgets and vouchers have the potential to allow consumers to re-direct service system funding towards their desired outcomes, including employment. Voucher and personal budget systems typically include methods to provide person-centered planning and decision support. Facilitated decision-making systems allow consumers to reclaim lost confidence. The act of directing, with decision support as needed, one's own services counterbalances the disempowering effects of mental illness and its treatment. Decision support services related to personal budgets and vouchers can assist consumers to negotiate for positive employment outcomes. The Dollars and Sense Individual Career Account project in New Hampshire and the KEYS to Employment Project in Oklahoma described in this paper are two successful experiments in alternate funding arrangements for individuals with a psychiatric disability. Both projects were based on the assumption that to change the system, the consumer/customer, must be in charge of financial resources.