The habits can be humor, philosophy, and spirituality which can replace stress with harmony, anger with peace, despair with hope, and isolation with community (Swarbrick, 2010). People need to make decisions to the point of where they want to be in their life. It is important to understand that counseling a person to determine whether the profession they are trying to enter is right for them or not. Not every person can work in the same environment as another person, not every person has the same values as another person, and this makes us individuals and forces the need of career counseling.

Operational definition

To accomplish occupational wellness, especially for disabled people, we need to look at the factors which are present. These factors are of economic nature and have a significant impact on the issue on hand. Cost reduction to our social security system is a main point of the issue and can be accomplished by coaching, counseling and integrating disabled people into the workforce again. Occupational wellness is achieved for these people to give them a job in which they can succeed and accomplish their goals (Drake, et al., 2009).

Since the majority of disabled people are afraid that they would lose health benefits, which are provided by the SSA (Social Security Administration), they are reluctant to return into the workforce. Incentives to get back into the work program would be the use of supported employment. A person could gradually increase their hours from 10 to 20 per week to reach the point where the employer would take over their health insurance costs. If this doesn't work out, this person should be able to easily move back to disability until he/she can find another employment.

Counseling has to be provided to determine what kind of occupation a person can fill. As a typical example, consider a young man with schizophrenia who feels paranoid and fearful around people, has little work history, and expresses a desire to work with animals (Drake, et al., 2009). This person can be easily counseled and the re-integration into the workforce would be a success.

Other factors which need to be considered are the delinking of health insurance from disability. This would allow the disabled person to participate in the workforce...

The next step will be linking the supported employment service to the mental health service. This step will enable a sizable proportion of mentally ill people to find employment again. Also the alignment of incentives for people with disabilities will help the beneficiaries to move quickly back into the workforce. By providing supported employment and mental health services early in the course of mental illness will help many people to avoid entering the disability system (Drake, et al., 2009).
Conclusion

It is clear that our system is not perfect, employers are not made aware of opportunities to increase their workforce, and people are not always knowledgeable about their occupation and what they can do to be happy at work. If considering the disabled people, increasing their wellness can be accomplished through re-integration into the workforce with health benefits provided, easy fall-back models, and training and counseling of each person to allow them to succeed. Implementing and recruiting of people with serious mental illnesses to evidence-based supported employment and mental health care would improve financial security for participants and could even save the government significant money (Drake, et al., 2009).

References

Dorn, F.J. (1992). Occupational Wellness: The Integration of Caree Identity and Peronal Identity. Journal of Counseling & Development, 176-178.

Drake, R.E., Skinner, J.S., Bond, G.R., & Goldman, H.H. (2009). Social Security and Mental Illness: Reducing Disability with Supported Employment. Healthy Affairs, 28, 761-770.

Mendoza, E. (2009, July 23). Wellness 101: What is occupational or workplace wellness? Retrieved April 26, 2010, from Wellness 101: What is occupational or workplace wellness?: http://www.examiner.com/x-15753-SF-Wellness-Examiner~y2009m7d23-Wellness-101-What-is-occupational-or-workplace-wellness

NAI. (NDI). Occupational Wellness . Retrieved April 27, 2010, from Definition of Wellness: http://www.definitionofwellness.com/dimensions-of-wellness/occupational-wellness.html

Swarbrick, P. (2010, January 19). Definning Wellness. New Jersey.

Appendix

Each Appendix appears on its own page