A twitter acquaintance has recently come out online about his experience with depression, connecting his business and personal personas and bravely allowing his business acquaintances to learn about his mental health challenges. In doing so, he inspired this latest blog post.
This past fall, I attended the IAPA (Industrial Accident Prevention Association) conference. At the time, I was writing a feature story about employment challenges for people with mental health problems for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s CrossCurrents. I talked to numerous people for whom “coming out” in the work place was an extremely difficult decision due to the stigma they realistically feared facing.
It was an exciting day, therefore, when for the very first time at the IAPA conference, mental health was presented as a workplace safety issue. Furthermore, outgoing CEO Maureen Shaw opened the conference saying that mental health needs to be considered as part of overall social responsibility.
An Ottawa Citizen article by Kathryn May about depression among public servants cited that of all disability claims in Canada, 40 to 50% are for depression. In the public service, the article states, mental health claims doubled between 1991 and 2008 to 45 per cent. Half of these were for depression. In response, Prime Minister Harper has recently initiated the development of a “workforce wellness” strategy that aims to promote prevention, reduce the stigma of mental illness and help people with depression access treatment and return to work as quickly as possible. Insurance companies and corporations are also taking a stronger interest in mental health.
One important resource that was presented at the IAPA conference was Guarding Minds @Work, funded by the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace and developed by experts from the Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare (COMH), a national research centre located at Simon Fraser University. The resource provides practical, user-friendly tools to help assess, promote and protect psychological safety and health in the workplace.
Working in communications, I have seen how people who are stressed, overwhelmed and not feeling valued in the workplace not only suffer themselves but can also impact the work environment. I also personally know two professional men, whose mental health deterioration went unnoticed by all of their colleagues until they were no longer able to function in the workplace, causing a deleterious impact on their livelihoods.
In recent years, more and more celebrities are coming out and talking about their bouts with mental illness or that of their family members. This has certainly helped push the agenda around the need to abolish stigma. But as a former government official once said to me, it is still not easy for the average worker to come out and talk about his or her illness and need for accommodation, if any. I applaud A.J. and all others who have the courage to come forward and further help to break down the stigma in today’s workplace.
(For people who are interested in learning more about mental health and social media, there will be two mental health camps held this year, one in Toronto on May 28th and one in Vancouver on July 10, 2010. As one of the organizers of the MentalHealthCamp Toronto event, I hope you will join us and if you are interested in sponsoring the event or volunteering, please do let us know.)