WeCARE (Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment)
WeCARE was implemented in 2005 by the New York City HRA in response to the high number of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), singles, or childless couples who are provided Cash Assistance in New York State and who had clinical barriers to employment. These barriers included medical and/or mental health conditions and/or substance abuse issues. The program was designed to provide comprehensive services to these participants through a variety of interventions, including a biopyschosocial assessment that includes specialist assessments when necessary, creation of individualized service plans, referrals, case management, vocational rehabilitation, skills training, and job development or assistance in obtaining federal disability benefits. WeCARE serves participants of both TANF and the State-funded Safety Net cash assistance program.
Since 2005, WeCARE has provided a comprehensive, individualized and integrated approach designed to not only evaluate an individual’s functional capacity, but also to truly help clients achieve their highest levels of health, functioning, and self-sufficiency. A Holistic biopsychosocial (BPS) assessments which highlight a client’s strengths as well as functional limitations. The BPS assessment identifies all relevant clinical and social barriers thereby minimizing the need for reassessments and often diagnoses serious conditions of which clients were unaware; some requiring emergency intervention.
WeCARE has developed a continuum of services including assessment, vocational rehabilitation, job placement, wellness planning and disability advocacy under one umbrella thereby reducing duplication and fragmentation of services. • Proactive wellness plans which link clients to treatment, facilitate treatment adherence, and monitor clinical progress to help clients become more functional. • Begins the vocational rehabilitation component with a comprehensive evaluation that results in an individualized plan of employment and a continuum of case management services.