McDonald’s top employee is a guy named Fred. Fred has flipped burgers non-stop for 9 years. He uses Invega and needs to work constantly in order to afford it. When the Ticket to Work came out he eagerly pursued it but lost his job at Wal-Mart due to a relapse and the time he spent in the Psych Ward. He was put on Invega which stabilized him but couldn’t find other employment. He couldn’t get Social Security to restore his check in time to pay the rent. So facing homelessness he made a deal with McDonald’s in order to keep the meds coming. He flips burgers continually. He is so used to the job he can even do it in his sleep. Since the drug is so expensive he can’t afford it without working 24/7. He is fed by a feeding tube and has his waste go into another tube which is emptied by a nurse. Since he was such a good employee McDonald’s started paying the difference when Invega became too expensive for his salary. He can’t speak because of the feeding tube and other employees are freaked out when they first work there by his appearance. His mother complained for a while but shut up after McDonald’s paid her in a $1 million legal settlement.
(I know I promised to stop complaining about the price of Invega. This is more a protest of the mental health system and the Ticket To Work which I think is a joke and the companies which take advantage of the disabled through it. When your competency depends on taking a pill having to depend on a system which is designed to get you off Medicaid which pays for it while limiting your ability to do any more than a minimum wage job is wrong. Bills have to be paid and losing such a job puts us in danger of homelessness because of how slowly the government works. Not everyone who takes medicine for schizophrenia are so limited in there abilities that a minimum wage job is all they are capable of when they are compliant with the meds but being forced to be limited to such jobs only gives us enough experience to do other minimum wage jobs and keeps us down. I also think the Mental Health Parity Law doesn’t work because a company can fire you if they find out you take such drugs and the private insurance companies will tell them too. Even the generic drugs are getting more expensive and the American Dream is a mirage for people who have to take many meds all their lives. In a way people who work on SS( are at a real risk of becoming homeless or like Fred.)
I love this quote! To afford pills, you must be poor to qualify for medi-cal. Once you’re on medi-cal, they want you to find work and get off medi-cal. What they don’t tell you is that companies hire us for the lowest, most menial job available and never, ever, ever promote us. That is a rigged economic system designed to keep sz poor and dependent on disability and menial jobs, as is disability. We’re kept on the outskirts of the economy, barely affording our necessities…
Someone needs to start suing their employers for discrimination. They’ll likely lose due to a biased system, but once the system is challenged, there is precedence for the next lawsuit to build off of.
*personally lost jobs due to hospitalizations. Have not had opportunity to work full time—ever and I’m 32 and been working as much as possible since age 19.
You should be able to qualify for Medicare for 8.5 years after you go back to work. I’m considering the ticket to work program myself but I had to make sure I would get my Latuda before I would do so. Latuda is pricey as ■■■■.