But I would like to suggest that the paycheck is not the only reason consumers long to be involved in the workplace. Employment usually ranks high on surveys of what mental health consumers would like to see in their lives. The adjective meaningful is often attached to the word employment, indicating that what is desired is more than a menial job. I would suggest, however, that what gives work its meaning or value goes far beyond the nature of the work itself and has to do with certain less tangible qualities of involvement in the workplace that render life itself a richer, more meaningful experience. All of these things are obtainable through volunteer employment, without some of the stresses and rigidity that go with having a paying job.
Volunteers can set their own schedules.
While they should be accountable for the hours they commit to, psychologically it is less stressful to be committed out of your own freedom than out of a contractual agreement based on a paycheck. Volunteers are never taken for granted, but always appreciated. This is often not the case in the world of the paycheck. Volunteers have more flexibility in adjusting to the ups and downs of their psychiatric disability. Because they are not under the pressure of the paycheck, they can always put their recovery and the maintenance of their psychiatric health first, where it belongs.