Client Testimonials
August 9, 2007
One of my best and most rewarding success stories is about a gentleman named Phillip Jones. He fell off a bridge while walking home one evening and broke his back. He fractured his back at T10 through 11-5, which is 8 bones. He crushed 11-1 and 11-4 and has 18 steel rods and 15 screws holding his back together. After meeting with myself, Renee Reedy, Community Work Incentives Coordinator with the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Project, and learning about the Social Security Work Incentives, Phillip decided that he wanted to write a Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) to assist him while he is in college. He enrolled at West Virginia University – Parkersburg in their Business Administration four-year degree program. We wrote the PASS for a computer, printer, Internet services, school clothes, meals, transportation costs and books for summer classes. It was approved effective 10/2006. Phillip told me today that he recently contacted the PASS Specialist at the Social Security Administration and asked if he could amend his PASS to include insurance for a car that he was able to purchase on his own, and some gas money. Ms. Monserrate, the PASS Specialist, told him that she was going to extend his PASS into January 2008 and that she was so proud of him for making such excellent grades, which at the time were 4.0. He also told me that the financial officer at WVU-P waived his tuition for the summer classes because he was such a fine student. He was also awarded scholarship. Phillip hopes to get his MBA after graduation and I feel confident that he will do just that. I am so proud and happy for what Phillip has accomplished. He told me that even if the PASS hadn’'t been approved, he knew that he would succeed without the help (and I believe him!), but that the PASS had been so beneficial and that he was so appreciative. I wish Phillip all the luck!
August 9, 2007
Roxanne Marese wrote this letter when I asked if I could use her as a success story. She has also had me come to Prestera Mental Health to do trainings on the Social Security Work Incentives for both professionals and consumers. She really is remarkable!
I’d be glad to let you use my story! You have no clue how much I benefited. Since returning to work full-time and with the Ticket to Work program that was explained to me by Renee Reedy, Community Work Incentives Coordinator with the West Virginia Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Project, I bought a car (and paid for it’s taxes for two years, and paid in advance for a year’s insurance), moved out of subsidized housing with ease into a terrific apartment that is very safe, paid a car insurance deductable for an accident that wasn’t my fault, opened a money market account, paid off several thousands of dollars of old medical bills that were incurred prior to my illness, to name a few things. Then when I started working full-time, I started a 401k plan with a 10‰ deferral, started a mutual fund, began a Roth IRA, and then opened a savings account for emergency funds to cover my expenses for 8 months should anything ever happen to me again, and I continue to receive Medicare (which I pay for now every three months), along with my Prestera health insurance benefits, and when I had to have surgery, I didn’t have to pay one cent out of pocket. This I have done in two year’s time, and as of August 1st, I celebrated my anniversary with Prestera-two years.
In addition to that, I have meaningful work, and I now report to the CEO and Executive Director of our Agency, Bob Hansen. I was also sent to Vermont for a week to learn wellness recovery action planning to teach to other consumers how to manage difficulties that they may incur. Prestera paid for my peer support specialist training through the West Virginia Mental Health Consumer’s Association, and I am certified. My wages are comparable to everyone else in the agency. To increase my income, I now do support groups in the crisis unit in Charleston one weekend a month, and for this year, I will be close to earning $30,000 this year, which is a little better than I was doing when I was teaching college. I am in the process of reestablishing credit once again, and have paid an old bill off which was in the amount of $2,400 and closed a very painful chapter of my life. The only consumer services I receive is a periodic check in with my doctor for medication management approximately every three months. I am now on very little medication – only two kinds. In addition, I am working on a project that I am keeping in "secrecy" that I think will truly benefit the consumers we serve, and I will be proposing this to Bob very soon. I am so excited about this because I will be fully using the skills I learned when I was in crisis to help others in ways that they probably never even thought about.
I could go on and on forever. Would you believe that I am in better shape now than I have ever been? I’d be happy to work you on whatever you need. Let me know what I can do to help with this project in any way.
Regards,
Roxanna
