If you don't get hired quickly, I'd recommend volunteering. I'd been out of the workforce for 8 years and when I was ready to start thinking about work, I started out with volunteering. I volunteered for 6 months before applying for my current job. The volunteering really boosted my confidence, showed employers I could stick with something, and gave me a current reference.

And since my current employer strictly hires people with histories of mental health challenges lots of us had big gaps on our resumes, but their criteria when hiring was that you had to be doing something on a regular basis, ie, school, volunteering, working part time, for the 6 months prior to your application.