SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Wading Into the Mainstream : A growing number of mental health groups are opening businesses where their clients can learn job skills and gain some financial independence.

Leanne O’Shea is a waitress and cashier at an upscale new cafe in West Los Angeles. She also suffers from multiple-personality disorder.

But the 49-year-old mother of two, who since she was very young has been afflicted with the rare mental illness that causes her to alternate among several distinct personalities, says she doesn’t feel awkward or alienated in this demanding business environment. Why? Because she isn’t alone.

The Corporate Cookie Caffe, where she brews espresso, prepares sandwiches and rings up customers’ orders, is run almost exclusively by individuals with psychiatric disorders. Some are schizophrenic; others have battled severe depression or bipolar disorder. Their illnesses and chances for recovery run the gamut. But as a team of employees, they’ve come together for acceptance and the opportunity to work as members of the community.

“I don’t feel like an outsider anymore, and that’s new for me,” O’Shea said.

The cafe, which offers its employees paid positions in a controlled--yet real-life--work environment, is the latest in a chain first launched in 1986 by Portals, a private nonprofit psychiatric rehabilitation center.

Its opening represents the most innovative effort yet by mental health agencies to provide a way for their clients to re-enter the mainstream job market.

A growing number of community rehabilitation centers nationwide are opening businesses--restaurants, bakeries, nurseries, flower shops, custodial and computer services--where their clients can achieve a measure of financial independence and gain the skills and confidence to ultimately move from government entitlements to competitive employment.

The trend is taking hold as the Republican-controlled Congress has its sights set on trimming welfare programs. The GOP’s “contract with America” specifically targets the Social Security and Medicaid programs that more than a quarter of the estimated 6 million mentally ill Americans depend on.

With research showing that the psychiatrically disabled are less prone to relapse and costly hospitalizations if they can find steady, fulfilling work, most mental health agencies have initiated some form of vocational activity for the clients they serve. The most common nowadays is supported employment, in which agencies place their clients in jobs, under the supervision of a coach. Such programs, though valuable, can often be an overwhelming first step for individuals who suffer from severe mental disorders and the shyness and lack of confidence that accompany them.

That’s where agency-sponsored businesses such as the Corporate Cookie come in.

These operations are designed to ease the transition into the mainstream by giving their clients--many of whom have never worked before, or have been unemployed for long periods--additional support before they make a long-term commitment to the work force.

“Some people really need that intermediate step,” said Marvin Weinstein, president and chief executive of Portals. “The better prepared they are for a job, the better chance they’ll have of keeping it.”

Take Liz Rivera, for instance. The 32-year-old was hired at the original Corporate Cookie on Wilshire Boulevard last year after losing her job at Universal Studios, where she had suffered a severe panic attack. For several years, mental illness had led Rivera through a maze of drug abuse, violent behavior, low-rent housing and life on the streets. But working with others who understand her problems, Rivera says, has given her new coping skills and the strength to start again.

“I’m planning to get my BA [degree] and become a caseworker” at a mental health agency, said Rivera, now manager of the Corporate Cookie snack bar at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health’s headquarters on 6th Street in Los Angeles. “I’ve been given so much help and support; I want to start giving some of it back.”

Many mental health experts agree that agency-sponsored ventures such as the Corporate Cookie are a much-needed resource for a country still reeling from the effects of a federal policy that deinstitutionalized the mentally ill through the 1970s and ‘80s. State institutions were shuttered without adequate provision being made for community-based care and treatment.

Indeed, up to 90% of those whose cases were diagnosed as acute mental illness are chronically unemployed, and those who do attain mainstream jobs are frequently unable to keep them for more than a few years, according to the Matrix Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based mental health research organization.

But client-run businesses, through an approach that combines self-help and mutual support, are making headway in changing this.

Almost 80% of the Corporate Cookie’s 200 or so former employees have successfully re-entered the mainstream work force and are now holding down jobs in law firms, restaurants and department stores. A few have even moved on to management positions with Portals.

Much of the success, mental health experts say, hinges on helping the psychiatrically disabled overcome the sense of alienation their illnesses cause and in rebuilding the interpersonal skills they need to function in the broader society.

“The problem with traditional forms of job training was that they did not bring these individuals into the community,” said Barbara Granger, project director of Matrix. “It brought them there physically like an object . . . and placed them there, but it did not integrate them with the people. And integration is the key.”

The Corporate Cookie, by its very nature, offers trainees a diverse, public setting--one filled with the hum of conversation, the melody of classical music and the aroma of roasted coffee beans.

Its 24 or so employees, many of whom are recruited from other local agencies, perform a diverse range of duties. Workers bake, clean, maintain inventory and, of course, serve customers.

“We’re training our clients to become productive members of society,” Weinstein said. “We’re teaching them how to deal with customers, handle finances and relate to management--skills that will prepare them for future employment in any number of fields.”

Not everyone, of course, can make the jump to permanent full-time employment. For all those people able to return to mainstream work, an equal number, though performing well, do not make it because their illnesses continue to be severely disabling. Others fear losing the Supplemental Security Income and Social Security disability payments they rely on.

Prosper Jancu is one of the lucky ones. Jancu, whose condition has been diagnosed as schizophrenia, is a supervisor at the Corporate Cookie on Santa Monica Boulevard. For years, he was plagued by symptoms that caused him to withdraw from his family and friends, and that caused him to leave a job of six years at Farmers Market. Therapy and medication have now relieved many of the symptoms, but it’s working at the cafe, Jancu says, that gives him the courage and the social skills to overcome his once-paralyzing fears.

“When I first started, I didn’t think I’d last three weeks. It was all so overwhelming . . ,” said Jancu, who now works full-time at the store, overseeing employees and training new ones. “But over time, I’ve become more confident and less sensitive.”

Statistics on the success rate of client-run ventures are scarce, but many agencies say people who have completed a stint at one have a better shot at re-entering and remaining in the mainstream labor force.

Thanks-A-Bunch Flowers, one of the oldest agency-sponsored businesses in California, touts steady successes over the 14 or so years since its opening. Nina Garcia, program director for the Chula Vista flower shop, says 75% of her former employees--42 individuals, or three a year--have found and kept jobs in the community. Thanks-A-Bunch, a creation of Kinesis South, a nonprofit rehabilitation center, hires about four clients at a time to work in the shop, where they design, wrap and deliver flowers.