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'Keeping schtum' about mental health problems
Posted Thursday 19 November 2009
Following the tragic death of German footballer Robert Enke, the difficulties people feel about being open about their mental health experience has made international headlines.
Enke's death has prompted a wave of public sympathy. Strangely, Monday's Financial Times Deutschland article 'The Perils of Revealing Your Illness at Work' doesn't refer to Enke, but it does remind us of the terrible bind so many people find themselves in: be open and risk your job, or stay quiet and risk your health.
The article's author, Lucy Kellaway, claims that it's best to keep quiet about mental health in the workplace. "The truth is that given our ignorance and squeamishness about mental health, it is probably better to shut up about it," she says.
She seems less concerned that 'keeping schtum' about mental health problems can contribute to perpetuating stigma, and in Robert Enke's case, can lead to people feeling they can't continue.
The article also takes a swipe at two well known faces of the Time to Change campaign, Stephen Fry and Alastair Campbell, suggesting that their public positions mean that disclosures about their own mental health 'don't count'.
On the contrary, it is their candour that has already helped bring mental health, and the stigma surrounding it, to the forefront of public attention. Every person who is open about their experiences should be applauded, as greater openness about the issue is what we need to break down the stigma that destroys lives.
However, Kellaway is right that admitting to mental health problems at work can be very frightening, and it's often a difficult choice for people to make. Recent research for the Time to Change campaign revealed that 92 per cent of the British public believes admitting to having a mental illness would damage someone's career.
Thankfully, developments in the law are making it less difficult to fight unfair treatment, and more organisations have positive policies on disability and equality at work.
No one should have to choose between their life and their livelihood.
Julia Lamb, Media Team
10 Comments
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I have been ill myself and worked with mental health service users for nearly 7 years. Re: Disclosure in the workplace ,my advice would be- 'look after yourslf' ! Do not disclose to potential employers your mental illness unless you are sure this will be met with empathy and understanding. There is so much ignorance and fear about mental illness ,Im afraid to disclose is likely to backfire on you.Forget about pioneering against stigma and look after your own interests.!
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I too have been stigmatised and traumatised by the reaction mental illness. As a former Director of HR myself I feel even more guilty about the issues surrounding disclosure and prejudice in the workplace. Why? Because I know them to be true despite the plethora of organisations who claim to be treat all applicants and employees fairly. What absolute 'tosh' the fact is they do not! Hence the reason why many of us sufferers fail to tell our family, friends, work colleaagues and even trusted CPN's and GP's just how we really are feeling and to how it is affecting our mental health. So we suffer in silence and the circle inevitably leads to thoughts of worthlessness, suicidal ideation and planning. What is the solution? Well it must be education and starting with young people who can then better understand as they progress in life. We have seen such a parallel with 'green issues' and the environment - it is the youngsters of 10-15 years ago who are now the most understanding!
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I am currently struggling, have been on medication for over 2 years to keep my depression in check after an episode that saw me being sent to the CMHT for an intervention.
Since then I have had 2/3 major episodes most of the time when trying to come off my medication. Not having stopped out the blue but under Dr supervision. I seem to get to a point and then all the old symptoms keep coming back.
I am having this issue again right now but am only 3 months into 9 months probation in a new job which is seeing me away from home 5 days a week and living in a hotel isolated from my usual support network. I am terrified about bring up the issue in work and asking for special treatment (I.e. not so much time away from home) because of it. I think the problem is I dont know where I stand legally, is it a long term illness? Can they fire me for it? Do i have any rights at all still being in probation?
Its terrible that in such an inlightened age that mental illness is still such a taboo and has such a stigma that people like me can only ever see a negative reaction occuring if I reach out and ask for help.
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About 2 years ago I had a job in education and my career was progressing nicely. I applied to an alternative employer and got the job. My current workplace offered me better prospects, so I stayed. Since then I have been ill but fight on a daily basis along the road to recovery. As part of the process I have been dismissed from my job and therefore applied to the alternative employer, as before. I have heard nothing, even though my qualifications are the same(and up to date) and I have more, and better quality experience.
What do we write on application forms? We have to say how many days sick we have had in the last 12 months, if we write depression we have no chance. If we write to be discussed at interview, we have no chance. If we write nothing the previous employer tells them anyway, we have no chance.
If you are open you have no chance, if you keep schtum you have no chance! -
I feel it is entirely up to each individual, as nobody can judge the type of environment you work in,or the type of employer to whom you are applying for employment. If you disclose and hope that the employer is sympathetic, you should get the reasonable adjustments you require and can rely on support for the Disability Discrimination Act. If you keep your history to yourself, you wont and you may be exposed at a later date, or your employer may claim that you are in breach of contract if you were asked and did not disclose a pre-existing "medical" condition. I don't think it is any coincidence that many people who are out of the closet in terms of their mental health status work in the health, social care or third sector.
It would be great to have a world and employment environment where there is no stigma and discrimination for mental ill health and many other conditions that people don't understand or fear.
Perhaps the Mental Health and Employability report due in early December in the UK will give some real ideas and opportunities for a lasting change for the better for all of us wonderfully talented people who happen to experience, or have experienced mental health problems and who are in work, or seeking work. Fingers and toes crossed it does! -
Thanks for highlighting this. It does seem apparent from reading the comments that people's individual circumstances must be taken into account. It also appears that celebrity status, or indeed anyone with a mental health problem who is high up the social ladder might experience a different attitude when they divulge their problem, than less privileged members of society.
Personally, I believe that in order to change attitudes, it is essential to 'own' the mental health problem and be open about it. Nothing is going to change if this is covert. However, I do accept that this may become a 'double edged sword', in that it highlights an emphasis to the person concerned , who becomes aware of their behaviour and wonders if a 'bad day' may be misconstrued by other members of staff as the onset of a relapse.
On the positive side, it is a way of illustrating 'recovery' and management of a mental health condition. 'Mad Pride' is one way of showing this.
I won't just talk the talk,I will 'walk the talk' .I am an alcoholic and have experienced severe depression and anxiety, plus suicide attempts. Guess what! I am recovering and getting on with my life and no-one is going to stop me.
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I was a Mental Health Project worker for seven years until it became a little uncomfortable to have me around.You would think working for a statutory psycho-social mental health service with the local council would have saved me from the stigma and total ignorance surrounding my Bi-Polar condition, anything but, I was constantly harassed in one way or another. The council knew my condition andhow it affected me when I worked full time for nothing. They must have thought that I was never going to be off work. I was not off a lot and worked doubly hard
to "try and prove myself" which I did every day to the point that I was the best worker that they had.Don't for a minute think that the DDA will protect you, It is not worth the time that it took to put together.
I will never disclose anything to a potential employer simply because
if an organisation that is supposed to help people with severe and enduring mental health issues and has a management system who could not care less then what hope is there with other employers
who are supposedly "less informed".
I don't think that attitudes are changing fast enough and I have suffered at the rough end of this. I no longer have any job......my crime.......to be ill. Please don't kid yourself that people really care,
In the main they are not interested in those who upset the status quo through illness, you are simply replaceable regardless of who
you work for and how these threats against you make your illness worse. In conclusion my manager was an RMN with 30 years experience,however, she was clueless when it came to managing
very vulnerable people. For 30 years she just did what others had told her and to be honest she could not have cared less. I have seen
people suffering from psychosis being sent home on the bus.......please take care and try and do all the right things to stay well. -
Perhaps one reason that people are more sympathetic towards famous people with mental health problems is that such people don't tend to be needing to claim benefits. I have suffered from severe depression for over 10 years, and have friends who are on benefits for schizophrenia and PTSD, and we all suffer from constant stigma, prejudice, and even harassment because we're sufficiently disabled to need to claim incapacity benefits to survive.
The constant attacks by the media and politicians on benefits claimants turns into an attitude that everyone on benefits is a faker or a scrounger. Even doing voluntary work, we are assailed by people asking us why we haven't got a "real job" yet - by people who have no idea how much it takes out of us just to get through each day.
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Having struggled to maintain work in a standard way in the office and failing by having to catch up at home ,using many excuses to be late, if experiencing a bad patch of the sleepless nights piled up having to ........white lie myself through...............
i decided with the help of a good mental health employment project advisor decided to disclose in my then new job., hoping that the employers disability tick and charitable work would support my disclosure aswell.
I decided after lengthy discussion to do this not at application stage but in a one to one after recriutment and probation period and not openly on my applcation form, no one asked me at interview.
I felt very bad by as the advisor pointed out you couldve gandualr fever which isodal but no one blurts that out at interview.I did not want to lie .
i am now so pleased as i have the proctection of the DDA and during a restructuring was able to request that they adapt the interview progromme and working hours to fit my needs and around my head.I do not think they would have done without the DDA standing behind me or that i woulsd have been robust enough to ask in the stress of the change .
If you do not disclose you may not have this proctection when issues arise for you but it is a difficult decision .it without disclosure but any decision you make is yours and you should get good advice on the pros and cons .
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