Brendan's Blog

The following is an edited extract from Brendan's Blog, where programme director Brendan McLoughlin posts a video diary through the website Working for Wellness talking to Londoner's about the current issues in mental health.

One in four people experience a mental illness but one in four people will not talk about their experiences. A key factor in this is stigma. Stigma is about negative attitudes which people hold about mental illness and those who have experienced it.

Stigma is significant in two ways.

Firstly, it is about other people. One of the reasons people are reluctant to talk openly about their experiences is the attitudes they think other people hold. Surveys consistently support this expectation. In a recent survey, 56% of people would not employ someone who had openly admitted to experiencing a mental illness - even if they were the best person for the job.

But people are also affected by attitudes they have about themselves. “Self stigma”, as this is sometimes called, can be just as big a problem as the stigma from others. It is this which can eat away at self-esteem and people’s beliefs in what they are capable of doing.  It can discourage someone from applying for a job, or if they do, performing badly at interview. It can also get in the way of relationships, so that someone might not share their experiences with their friends and family – something which would help them to maintain better mental health.

But to go back to the attitudes of others. The manifestation of these attitudes is discrimination. This is the behaviour which demonstrates the perceived difference between one person and another which is based on poor knowledge and prejudice. It can mean that someone doesn’t get shortlisted for a job because they have disclosed that they have experienced a mental illness. In the research cited above, 92% of the British public would not disclose they had a mental illness when applying for a job.

This discrimination means that people do not get a fair shot at jobs for which they are qualified. People do not apply for jobs because they know that will not get a fair deal. People lie on application forms because to be open will affect their chances of succeeding.

How can we try to challenge and change this?

The obvious first route is legislation. The UK Disability Discrimination Act was amended in 2005 to try to afford greater protection for people who experienced a mental illness.

There are also things which all of us can do in our day-to-day lives.

Most people who live and work experience stress.  Without some degree of stress we would not do anything. Stress can help us to achieve more and succeed. However most of us have also experienced the overwhelming stress which can start to paralyse and lead to worse performance. We often hear commentators at big football matches talking about the players needing to settle their nerves at the start of the match. We all go through that. Because that is such a common experience which we all talk about, we can use such conversations to start broaching the subject of mental health, distress and mental illness.  I’m sure that all those who work in an office these days have at some point come across a colleague in the toilet or at the photocopier who is tearful, irritable or perhaps angry due to the stress their boss is putting them under.

When we meet people like this we will often share our experiences of stress and views of the offending boss. As a society we are comfortable sharing this level of distress. We might also talk to more trusted colleagues about relatives and friends who have more severe problems and who perhaps are going thorough a mental illness at that time. The more widely we can share our experiences of stress and distress at work the better. We can then begin to talk about more sensitive issues – a lot of people in this current economic situation will be very worried about debt, potential redundancy and similar issues. In order to protect our mental health it is crucial to be able to manage these problems. A lot of people will do this through sharing their problems, talking them through – “A problem shared is a problem halved”. We will be talking about mental health issues.  The more we do this the easier it will be to talk about more severe problems – be they those of colleagues, friends, or ourselves.

Mental Health First Aid was developed in Australia and is designed to provide people with accurate information about mental illness and some guidance no how to approach someone who is distressed. Some of the evidence from Australia suggests that providing this information does begin to change attitudes. Working for Wellness actively promotes this training for workforces and others to help with this. Feedback from those who have attended is very positive.

But we need to do more. As well as individuals changing their behaviour we need to help managers. A lot is about challenging the common misconceptions about mental illness and how it affects peoples’ ability to deliver their work. We need to make sure that managers understand about the DDA concept of “reasonable adjustments”. At the end of the day we need to help managers to treat their staff as people. In smaller firms relationships often develop whereby the manager who is also the owner will make adjustments to help a worker through difficult times. They don’t think of it as “reasonable adjustments”, but more simply as helping out a valued employee in a time of need. Helping managers to be more human in their response to their staffs’ experience of being human will be important. Manager behaviour has a crucial influence on team behaviour so supporting managers to be more human in their dealings with their staff will be crucial.

Brendan McLoughlin, November 2009.