Helping Youth on the Path to Employment: Preventing Long-term Disability in Youth and Young Adults through Career Development
Debbie Nicolellis, MS, CRC
In this interactive presentation, the Training Director for HYPE (Helping Youth on the Path to Employment) will discuss HYPE as a service model that aims to prevent long-term disability in youth and young adults through a strong and early emphasis on higher education and employment. The origins, creation, philosophy, current offerings, and future directions of HYPE will be discussed.
Currently the Training Director at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, Debbie has a keen interest in supporting people with mental health conditions to succeed in work and school and to have productive, meaningful careers. Debbie has a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling with a focus on Supported Employment and Psychiatric Rehabilitation from Boston University and is certified nationally as a Rehabilitation Counselor. For the past 25 years, Debbie has focused on training professionals in the competencies of engaging people with mental health conditions to be successful in careers, employment and education, including considering/getting ready for making changes in their vocational lives, choosing vocational directions, getting into school and work, and persisting in jobs and school via skill, resource and accommodation development. Working within federally funded research projects, Debbie has developed essential manualized curriculum that helps providers to provide effective, fidelity-oriented services. Debbie has authored book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, curricula and more to help inform practice in the field.