Disabled by a Serious Mental Illness and on Benefits? Here are Some Suggestions
All of us dealing with mental illnesses struggle to make a buck last, and have issues with housing, food and medications. Here are a few suggestions on how to thrive despite a difficult situation.
Of course, the first thing a person needs to do when they are out of the hospital and living with a serious mental illness is to find housing. If you had spent time in a hospital, you may have had access to a social worker who could help set things up for you, but these services vary from state to state and province to province. Until I was fortunate enough to find a subsidized apartment I liked, I was constantly moving, especially when I could get lower rent. If you live in a private apartment, you may be paying far too much of your limited income to your landlord. This doesn’t have to happen.
The first thing I feel needs to be done with regard to housing is to get your name on a list for as many subsidized housing agencies who work with disabled people as possible. I was supposed to do this myself and kept putting it off. Then, when I was asked to leave the group home I had been living in, I was fortunate enough to be placed in another housing unit under control of the same nonprofit company. They moved me to my own 2-bedroom apartment, gave me a microwave as a parting gift, and I was on my own. The rent is extremely affordable. They charge 30% of your income, and some of my income (which comes mostly from benefits) wasn’t included in their calculation. As a result, I have a spacious apartment with a balcony which is close to a park and to a grocery store, and at first I only paid $335 a month, which included all utilities. The rent did go up a little when I started working for The Schizophrenia Society, but I am happy to pay it.
Of course, there is much more to be done than just get a place. Medications are likely the next extremely necessary aspect of recovery from a mental illness, but first I want to cover more about housing. Once you get a place of your own to stay in, you will need furniture. This is where you have to be careful because so many things can go wrong with furniture, especially if you buy it used. First of all, it is simply not a good idea to get a used bed. There is too much of a chance these days of getting bed bugs which are insidious creatures that multiply rapidly, will crawl over you while you are sleeping or trying to sleep, and bite you to suck your blood. They are very hard to get rid of. If you have a mattress you can use that doesn’t yet show any signs of bed bugs, I suggest strongly getting a mattress cover for it so that you won’t have to worry about bed bugs making a nest in your mattress, but it is still critically important to not let bed bugs take hold in other ways. With an infestation, even if your landlord pays for heat treatment or spraying that will kill the bugs, you could have to throw away all your books, most of your clothes and more.
I recently had to throw out a very large and comfortable queen-sized bed, even though it had a mattress cover. There was just no way to stop bugs from nesting in it or hiding somewhere in it. All I have now is a futon to sleep on, which I have to admit is comfortable. I wash my futon cover more than I should, and spray it often, and perhaps most importantly, I vacuum it and make sure all my bedding gets washed and double dried. I picked this futon up at IKEA for a reasonable price.
Again, regarding bed bugs, there are a few ways to deal with them. If you find them in your clothes, they may have already laid eggs in the seams of your clothes. Regular wash and dry cycles won’t kill these. If you suspect your clothes have an infestion, run all your clothing through a hot water wash and a hot dryer cycle. I often run my clothes through two dryer cycles to make sure and kill the bugs. If you live in a cold area, you can bag up your clothes in garbage bags and put them outside for about 4 days or so. You can also put your items in a freezer (I am so lucky to have an apartment-sized deep freeze). Four days in a freezer should kill any bugs and eggs.
One of the best ways to get rid of bed bugs is to first get traps that you can put the legs of your bed in that allow bed bugs to crawl in but they can’t crawl out of it. The next thing I use myself is diatomaceous earth, which is ground up sea shells and such, made into a fine powder. You spread a light coating of this powder (which you can buy cheaply on amazon) over any spaces you think bugs may convene. Basically, this powder has rough edges and when the bugs walk across it, it cuts them open and kills them. I also use two more things, one of which is a halogen lamp which I am not sure is 100% effective, but it seems to be helping. It uses UV-C light that is supposed to kill the bugs. The other thing I use is plain old Raid ‘crawling insect’ bug spray. It is a battle, but one that can be won. With all of these methods, I suggest wearing an effective mask like the N95 and vacating the area after application and while the substances are working and settling in. It is critical to vacuum often. Of course, if you ever shop in thrift shops or second hand stores, it is a good idea to stop at a laundromat on your way home to run the clothes through the dryer for a couple of cycles on high temperature. Most thrift shops don’t do anything to the clothes or books they put out for sale, it is important to be careful.
So, the last note I wanted to mention about living in your own place is furniture. Call around to some of the charitable agencies in your area that have thrift stores. We have a large centre run by Goodwill and from what I understand, if you are on disability and in need of furniture, if you go with someone from your clinic such as a nurse therapist or social worker, you may be able to get deep discounts or even free furniture. Be very careful to clean and spray all items before you start using them.
living on your own can be a tough thing. Having a pet, anywhere from a cute little gerbil to a loyal dog to a loving cat will help. If you want a dog or cat, and they give you comfort, try to get it registered as a service animal and then a landlord can’t tell you they don’t allow pets and you can even take your service animal anywhere.
I had some great advice from a doctor years ago who told me that when I move out of the hospital, what I should do is post a notice on a bulletin board at the university, asking for a psychology major to be a roommate. Consider offering them a deal on the rent. You may not get along with them, in which case I suggest you put up the same note in the same place. If you do get along with them, it can be extremely helpful to have someone who better understands some of your problems or mental health struggles. Don’t expect them to be your free 24-hour counsellor, but do expect them to be more sensitive to your mental health limitations.
One of the key things that happens when a person moves out of a bad situation or moves out of a hospital to their own place is loneliness, which can become toxic or even deadly. It is estimated that 10% of people with schizophrenia will end their own lives, often because they are isolated and don’t receive the help they need. This is why it is so important to stay active. If you are healthy and fit, consider joining a sports team. If you want to have a job one day where leadership and communication skills are needed, consider joining the public speaking organization, Toastmasters. There are also a lot of courses you can take such as WRAP, or Wellness Recovery Action Plan. Then there are places like The Schizophrenia Society in Canada or NAMI in the US where both caregivers and people living with mental illness can take courses that will benefit their mental health. If you are young and want to attend college, consider going back part-time. Anyone with a mental illness does best when they can go about their business without being too stressed.
The sad thing is, few Life Skills courses or other helpful activities run forever. Most of them take a few weeks or a few months and then you are back to square one. I feel the next logical step is to try to get a part-time job you enjoy that you can work at just a couple of times a week. You will be surprised at the comfort and freedom of having even a small income come in for many reasons. You can work part-time and/or volunteer with an organization that you are interested in.
Insofar as what to do with any extra income you receive, I just wanted to give you the option to look at a short video about a short, 110-page or so book that has helped me a great deal in managing my life and my finances. This book changed my life.
The great thing about volunteering is, you can almost pick where you want to work and it looks really good on a resume when you move on to another position. If you like seniors, you can do what I did and become part of a pastoral care team in an extended care hospital. If you like cats, you can volunteer with the SPCA. Incidentally, volunteering doesn’t always have to look like hard work or not seem fun. I once tried to get onto a pit team for a race car driver. One of the cool things about it was, if you went into the pit team, at least once a year there would be races where the pit crew got to drive the car. Of course, you may not be interested in racing, not have a driver’s license or any number of things you may need, but think hard about something cool you would love to be a part of as I wanted to experience racing. I try to look at things this way:
“There is no reason to fear death. Death is the end to our problems. Those we leave behind are the ones who will suffer from our deaths. What I fear is not living a full life. Not having a good life where I cherish friends and family and do the right things always are the biggest mistakes I want to avoid. My opinion is that if we don’t live our lives to the fullest, and if there is an afterlife, we may not be able to partake in it, having wasted our precious gift of 80 years give or take on this vast and beautiful planet.”
Leif Gregersen, April 2025
So now I wanted to talk about medications. They are a huge priority for anyone who has a serious mental illness, and often very difficult to afford. In Canada and the US (I know I have some friends who tune in from the UK but it is my understanding you have a wonderful and compassionate system of providing medications to your citizens) getting proper medication isn’t always easy.
The first thing that is important to do is to make sure you apply for any government benefits you are eligible for. I think in the US it is Medicaid or something like that. Where I live, Blue Cross will cover medications for people who were previously on benefits who have gone off them due to having an income or being cut off when eligible for senior’s benefits.When you see your psychiatrist, also make sure they are using LCA or least-cost alternative medications. There is also an option to go onto generic forms of medications that do the same thing but cost much less.
When someone becomes mentally ill in Canada, most of the time they are given benefits which will cover all prescription drugs, but there are often medications you need that aren’t covered by your particular plan. Don’t give up though, at least where I live there is a process where you can appeal the coverage. If that doesn’t work, talk to your Member of the Legislative Assembly or its equivalent in your province. These people like to grab the spotlight and help the disabled. I contacted the MLA in Alberta once who handled disability issues and not only had a great visit and learned a great deal, she was kind enough to buy copies of all of my books which she donated to the library at my former high school.
Just to interrupt quickly, I did want to mention a few things that people can do when they live on their own to help manage their household and their money. One of the first ones is to find a food co-op if you can, or even gather a few people together, even if it is just your parents and a sibling, and get a membership at a bulk sales store. Here we have Costco, it may be different in other areas or countries. Shop together and purchase larger amounts of things like meat or coffee, then share the cost and split up what you get. I have a friend who keeps his eyes on flyers for sales and when he finds one, he buys as much as he can and divides it up, freezing it if needed, and then sells it at cost to our group of friends. You may not save a lot over shopping on your own, but you will likely get better quality using this method, and be able to pay for the food when you receive your support payments and last the month on what you are able to put in your freezer. I have even heard of people who will go together and buy a farm animal such as a cow ready for slaughter, and look for the many ways to save, for example by having a butcher cut the meat at a discount price or for some of the meat.
So, these options can be helpful, but I did also want to mention a couple of other things about medications. First, if you are in the US or Canada, have a mental illness and need medications, you can often contact the pharmaceutical company that makes the medication you need. They have a budget to help people in this situation and may give you a deep discount, or even free medications. For my friends in the US, I feel for you. All of you. There are few limits on the profits a drug company can take with medications. Fortunately there is a back door out of this problem. Go to your doctor, get a prescription for what you need, and then go online to a Canadian Pharmacy website, then register and fax or scan then email your prescription, and they can fill it through the mail for much better prices than nearly anywhere in the US. Canadian drug companies are much more regulated as to what they can charge for medications.
This has been a bit of a long blog. I have covered some of this information before, but I have a feeling some of it may be new to today’s readers. Thank you so much for sticking to the end, I know I tend to ramble on a bit at times. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to topics you would like to see me cover, please message me.
As far as my qualifications to give advice, I work for one organization that serves people with schizophrenia and volunteer for another that is located in the US. I also have 35 years of lived experience with medications and mental illness, and think I can often give useful advice to others who are struggling. Feel free to reach out to me by message or email, my personal email is leif.n.gregersen@gmail.com and I would love to hear from you or at least hear how I could better help.
