Welcome to Mind's blog
Each week we'll be posting items on a whole range of topics relating in some way to mental health. We hope to stimulate debate and get you thinking about mental health and Mind's work in a new way.
We welcome comments and questions on our posts, but have a few ground rules to keep the site welcoming and interesting to every body. The first rule is the most important: be respectful of other commenters and bloggers. Read the rest of our comments policy.
Please note that some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
Employment:
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1 February 2010
The value of volunteeringFor people with mental health problems, isolation and loneliness can become an ever present problem, leading to a reduction in their wellbeing. Ninety per cent of respondents to a survey by Welsh mental health charity Hafal said that loneliness makes the symptoms of their severe mental illness worse - depression in particular.
This is certainly the case for me. After many years of mental ill health, I felt separate from people my own age because I was not working or studying. I’m sure there are many people around the UK who face being alone for many long hours during the day.
Mind Cymru has a group of volunteers who work in their Cardiff office, supporting the work of staff. I joined them over a year ago and have never looked back.
As well as gaining office work experience, I have greater confidence and higher self-esteem from meeting new people, having somewhere to go and feeling that the work you are doing is useful, bringing the sense that your life has a purpose.
Beating loneliness and isolation is just as important to the recovery of people with mental health problems as treatments such as medication and talking therapies.
Volunteering of any kind not only helps the organisation you are working with, but brings the possibility of new social contacts and a new way of relating to the world. Go for it!
Katherine Dutson, volunteer, Mind Cymru
7 Comments -
19 January 2010
Will pre-employment health checks be a thing of the past?According to psychologist Cliff Arnall, yesterday was the most depressing day of the year. Well may be so, but there was at least one reason to be cheerful: the government tabled an amendment to its Equality Bill which will ban pre-employment health questionnaires.
PEQs are routinely sent out with job application forms, and ask applicants to disclose information about current and previous health conditions, medications they are taking, and so on. Ostensibly employers need this information simply to ensure that the candidate is fit for the role in question, and a quick Google search will tell you that PEQs are a “vital”, “useful” or even “fundamental” part of the recruitment process.
Frankly, I’m not convinced. PEQs give employers an opportunity to ‘weed out’ the applicants that they don’t like the look of, because they have a mental health problem (or indeed any other health condition). And because it’s done at the application stage, this type of discrimination is virtually undetectable – you may strongly suspect that the reason you didn’t get invited to interview is because of your mental health history, but how on earth will you prove it?
Not all discrimination is quite so deliberate of course. Some employers might assume a person with mental health problems is unsuitable not out of malice, but out of ignorance, or misunderstanding. But the consequence for the applicant is the same – soul destroying, confidence-shattering rejection.
PEQs also deter many applicants from applying for jobs in the first place, because they predict that stigma towards mental health will mean their application form is automatically stuck on the ‘no’ pile. No wonder, given fewer than four in ten employers say they would employ anyone with a mental health problem.
There is simply no reason to include a health questionnaire at this stage of the recruitment process. Applicants should be judged on their ability to do the job, not on their medical diagnosis, and the inclusion of a PEQ detracts from this. If an applicant’s health condition means he or she will need extra in-work support to do the job, then so be it – but let’s ask those questions after the interview, not before. After all, employers have a statutory duty to provide reasonable adjustments for employees with mental health problems, to help them fulfill the role, but PEQs enable many to quietly shirk this duty.
The USA and several European countries already have legislation preventing employers from asking about health until after a conditional job offer has been made.
Thankfully, after many meetings and intense pressure, letters, and briefings from Mind and other health charities, the government has decided to address this loophole. The amendment tabled yesterday (69A* if you’re interested) prevents employers from asking questions about health prior to interview (except in very limited circumstances), and gives the Equality and Human Rights Commission powers of enforcement, to ensure employers comply.
We can’t crack open the champagne just yet; the Bill isn’t an Act and there are some who believe it never will be, due to lack of parliamentary time. But if it does go through, it will be a real victory for untold numbers of people with mental health problems who are trying to return to work.
Louise Kirsh, Parliamentary Officer
1 Comment -
7 December 2009
The coming decadeToday sees the publication of not one but four separate Government documents on mental health - a type of "Super Monday" for mental health policy.
Most are lengthy pieces of work, but they are all important reading. For the first time we have a cross-governmental strategy for mental health - this is a vital symbol of a change in approach. We know from the work we've done in recent years such as Another assault, on employment, and on men and mental health, that people who experience mental health issues need support from across the state - to find work, and to be treated as an equal citizen.
New Horizons and the Department for Work and Pensions commissioned the Perkins Review to focus on a more positive, recovery oriented approach to mental health and employment. For too long, we've just assumed that equality is not realistic, yet there are many people who work while managing a mental health condition. It's important that the basis of services should be on what people can do, rather than what they can't do.
We are now starting to see a recognition of the need to address wellbeing and mental health promotion. The early signs are promising - the Time to Change campaign is already having an impact, and work in schools on resilience is a step forward.
Together, they form a chance for people to be more empowered, and to change the way the state treats people with a mental health problem.
So here's the challenge - how does a vision for the next ten years become a reality when there's no money, fewer targets and an election looming?First, mental health services need to continue to improve. People's experiences of them are still too patchy, and speedy access to effective care is still vitally important.
Secondly, cross-governmental strategies need momentum to keep going. There is now no turning back from this and whoever wins the next election will need to ensure this works.
Finally, it needs resources - not necessarily new ones but a reprioritisation. For example, better mental health training for frontline workers and use of public health and communications budgets to tackle stigma and discrimination.
People with mental health problems have been marginalised and excluded for too long, we must seize the chance to change this.
1 Comment -
19 November 2009
'Keeping schtum' about mental health problemsFollowing 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 -
17 September 2009
Why the wellbeing of NHS staff is so importantSo, NHS staff take the more sick days than anywhere else in the public sector? Anyone who has had any experience with the day to day running of NHS services can't be that shocked by this.
Growing up in a household of medic parents, I know the stress that these professions can entail. I imagine that if I told my mum that a quarter of NHS staff go off sick due to stress, depression and anxiety, she would simply look a bit baffled and reply "Surely stress, depression and anxiety are part of the job?!"
Speaking with people who use NHS mental health services over the last few months, as we consult on the Department of Health's plans for New Horizons, the next 10 year strategy for mental health, the issue of NHS staff wellbeing keeps cropping up.
The general opinion is that there are some great people working in mental health services but too many of them just aren't treated properly. Instead, they can be overworked and left with little support of their own. The resulting absenteeism then goes on to have a very negative effect on clients who, even in a crisis, are told that their psychiatrist isn't available or that their community psychiatric nurse will be changing for the umpteenth time. In fact, more than 80 per cent of NHS staff questioned admitted that their health affected the quality of care they gave to patients.
Users of NHS services deserve better continuity with mental health professionals who are well enough to provide the right care, and mental health professionals deserve a better working environment that practices what it preaches.
As the Department of Health begins to draw up plans to improve wellbeing across the whole population, let's hope they remember the needs of their own. You can have your say on the Department of Health's plans for New Horizons.
Mariam Kemple, Policy and Campaigns Officer
3 Comments