Honesty can lose you your job – we still have much to do!

January 18, 2012

In today’s Telegraph , there was a worrying story about an employee who had allegedly been made redundant for disclosing to his employer that he was experiencing feelings of depression.  In a world where technology and social media is the norm, it’s hardly surprising that the employee took to twitter to share his experience, along with his dismissal letter!  Within hours he had received thousands of tweets supporting him and offering advice.  This is obviously an unacceptable way to treat someone suffering from depression, but I’m not at all surprised that this scenario has come to light and the power of social media may very well surface similar stories in the coming weeks and months.

Given that around 1 in 6 people now suffer, or will in the future suffer, from a common mental illness (e.g. depression, anxiety and stress) it is astonishing that the stigma of mental ill health is still with us.  As well as all the high profile cases we hear about, there are so many TV programmes, films and other media highlighting the problem and, indeed, its treatment, that it’s hard to imagine this episode could have occurred in our times.  But unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  Even though many more people experience mental health issues and access to support is much better than it was a decade ago, there is still a concern about taking people on who have had mental health problems – or dealing with them appropriately if they are already in employment. Sure, we still need more support for people with mental health conditions, but it is out there and there’s no excuse for this particular employer’s response.

And yet when it comes to physical health issues there seems to be much more sympathy.  As Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1853: “how prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls!”  Given the troubled times we are all going through in this severe and long lasting economic crisis, we are going to see more people who are unable to cope and who succumb to mental health problems, albeit treatable conditions.  It would be unacceptable, and unsustainable, to dismiss everyone who said they had a mental health issue – for example, what would have happened if the Lloyds Chief Executive had been treated this way when he admitted struggling with similar issues?!  In order to reduce the stigma of mental health issues, employers need to be made aware of the help available to employees who may be suffering this way, as well as the importance of supporting their psychological well-being as part of the way they do business.

We need to invest more in this growing societal issue, in terms of identifying and treating it, or better still working to prevent it in the first place.  Otherwise, as Mark Twain put it, “if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got”.  That is not good enough for the many thousands who are suffering or the society in which we all live.

1 Comment | health, Mental health, Redundancy | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper

It’s time to talk…

November 28, 2011

The untimely death of Gary Speed was one of the most shocking news stories I’ve heard in years.  The suicide of a charming, talented and ambitious family man – someone who had recently played in the Premier League before starting to make his mark as an international manager with his native Wales – is, on the surface of it, as unexpected as it gets.  If this doesn’t teach us all something about the difference between the public image of our idols and the reality of their lives then nothing ever will.  We don’t know the reasons that Gary chose to take his own life, maybe we never will, but it’s hard to believe that his mental state was not a factor.

Whether or not this was the case, it’s not that surprising that we’re hearing about more and more people in the public eye who are afflicted with mental health issues – after all, one in four in the UK now report experiencing depression.  In recent years sufferers and non-sufferers alike have been given very personal insights into the conditions of well known figures such as Stephen Fry, the cricketer Marcus Trescothick and ex-footballer, Stan Collymore.  All of these, and more, have thankfully helped the public to understand that dealing with mental illness is about much more than ‘pulling yourself together’.

Poignantly, the last of these three, Stan Collymore, is currently suffering from a severe bout of depression and has laudably chosen to be very open about his illness in the hope that it will help others.  Last Saturday morning, wide awake at 4.48am, he was moved to write a very frank account of what happens to him when depression strikes.  I can honestly say it was one of the most intense and moving things I’ve read for some time and I’d encourage anyone with an interest in mental health to read it at http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ecoqm1.

As I said, we just don’t know if Gary Speed was going through something similar or not, but I think it’s fair to say that anyone who takes their own life gets to a very lonely place mentally before making that decision – somewhere that thankfully most of us will never go. In his account Stan Collymore talks about this issue and strongly urges anyone who feels the way he does right now to talk to someone about it, to ask for help. Whatever was troubling Gary, it’s a dreadful shame that he was unable to do this – he will be sorely missed by all who knew him and millions more who admired him.

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Posted by Cary Cooper

More support for talking therapies

February 2, 2011

It is fantastic to hear today’s announcement that the UK government is investing £400m in making talking therapies available on the NHS.  This is wonderful news given that one in six people suffer from a common mental disorder such as depression, anxiety or stress.  The emotional strain on those affected and their families can be enormous, and the costs to society in terms of treatment, lost productive value, sickness absence and so on, total nearly £100b per annum. So the funding certainly makes sense from both a fiscal and a moral stand point.

However, as well as making the resources available to treat people, we also need to get at the source of this 21st century epidemic.  WHO has predicted that by 2030 ‘depression’ would be the number one burden of disease in the world.  It’s therefore imperative that as well as treating mental illnesses, we explore the factors that underpin them, so that more preventative measures can be taken in the future.

Some of these sources have already been identified through the government’s Foresight project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing.  Factors include debt, the breakup of the family and community, loss-related events in people’s lives, poor housing and other environmental issues, being bullied at work, lack of early identification of symptoms and many more.  Whether it is in schools, communities or in the workplace, we need to tackle some of these issues at source if we are to stop the increasing tide of mental ill health in our society.  We can make a difference if we are brave enough to find solutions to the reasons people become ill in the first place, and take action before it is too late.

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Posted by Cary Cooper

Changing The ‘Sick Note’ Culture – But How Effective Will A ‘Well Note’ Be?

March 20, 2008

Recently it was announced that doctors would be encouraged to issue ‘well notes’ instead of ‘sick notes’, to get people back to work even if they are only doing part or some aspect of their normal job. 

The underlying principle is that the longer people are disengaged from work while on a sick note, the more difficult it is to re-integrate them back into the workplace. This might be a reasonable strategy for muscular skeletal disorders, where the doctor might have the expertise to determine what the patient is or is not ‘able to do’ in the workplace. However it is more problematic for stress-related or mental ill health sources of absence.

In terms of incapacity benefit the single biggest source (representing something like 40% of the total) is for mental ill health or stress at work.  In this context, many doctors are incapable of determining what activities their patients are able or unable to perform.  Also, most GPs will not know the work environment of their patients, or what their problems at work might be (i.e. an autocratic boss, a long hour’s culture, a mismatch between the needs of the individual and those of the specific job, etc).

For example, what if someone at work has been bullied over a period of time by their boss, and then goes off ill? The GP might feel this person could go back to work and is capable of doing X and Y, but being confronted by this bullying again might mean that they get worse and may end up off for a longer period of time after the initial re-entry period. The important point is that GPs have certain expertise but they may not necessarily understand the particular working environment of their patients and what the stimulus for the patients problem might be in the first place. 

By the way, this may even apply to patients with backache problems as well, since some muscular skeletal problems are sometimes a presenting symptom for relationship or career-related problems at work, particularly when the doctor cannot find an organic cause. 

Leave a Comment » | Absenteeism, Engagement, Stress | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper

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