Today heralds the start of Mental Health Awareness Week and many employers and organisations are placing significant focus on activities that can help to improve the mental well-being of their staff.
Anything which helps to promote the well-being of individuals in the workplace has to be a positive thing. Yet some commentators have been critical of the concept of Mental Health Awareness Week, suggesting that normalising anxiety and stress can detract from the severity of mental illnesses that some members of society have to deal with every single day.
For example, some commentators suggest that at its most broad definition, all of us at some point suffer with our mental health. This is of course true. We all have mental health in the same way that we all have physical health. Some of us enjoy better mental health than others. Yet all of us have a degree of mental well-being which can vary on a regular basis.
The phrase “mental illness” still has negative connotations from past decades and centuries when people were looked down upon for suffering from a mental impairment. The mere phrase “mental illness” can still conjure up concepts of institutions and other ghastly environments from the past. Yet when we talk about mental health, what we really sometimes mean is mental illness. Everybody has mental health, but only some people have a mental illness.
Mental health awareness week should be used not only to focus upon how we can promote the well-being of all of us in society but also to focus upon an awareness that some people suffer more severely from mental illnesses and need understanding and support from all of us, including from their work colleagues and managers.
Statistics show that a significant proportion of us will suffer from a mental illness at some point in our lives. Some of us suffer from such conditions throughout our lives. These can sometimes be managed through medication and other treatments and may not be immediately recognisable. Many people are able to mask their mental illnesses so that even colleagues working with them on a day-to-day basis might not necessarily be aware that the person has a mental illness.
The Equality Act 2010
Suffering from a mental illness does not automatically equate to suffering from a disability, although often people who suffer from a long-term mental impairment will also suffer from a disability under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. Where somebody takes medication to help cope with their mental illness, it is all the more likely that they will have a disability if this medication is prescribed long-term. Under the Equality Act, long-term translates as having lasted for a year or is likely to last for a year, but also includes lifelong conditions. The focus is upon how the impairment impacts on a person’s normal day to day activities and how it would affect them if they were not taking medication or receiving other treatment.
One of the difficulties with identifying disability at work under the Equality Act in the form of a mental illness is that it is not often readily apparent whether somebody meets the definition. Only when somebody’s medical history is disclosed and when somebody explains to their employer the impact of their illness upon them on a day-to-day basis can the employer make a clear judgement on whether or not the person meets the definition of a disabled person under section 6 of the Equality Act.
In practice, this means that many employers have to assume that a person suffers from a disability even though there is no definitive label confirming that the person has a disability. It is very risky for an employer to cast doubt upon the genuineness of somebody’s medical condition or disability, as to do so is not only potentially deeply offensive and harmful to a person’s mental wellbeing, but also suggests that the employer does not place the trust and confidence in the individual that they should place in them.
Many people with mental illnesses are nevertheless able to hold down successful and highly challenging jobs. It is important that they find ways of coping to enable them to succeed in their job whilst at the same time protecting their mental well-being. One of the more crucial aspects of Mental Health Awareness Week is the importance that employers do not look negatively upon individual employees who come to them disclosing mental illnesses. Having a mental illness does not mean somebody is weak or less employable than somebody else. It indicates that the person might need some additional support in the form of reasonable adjustments to help them overcome the disadvantages they face, caused by their condition.
Over the last few years, there has been a great deal of improvement in recognising that we are all different and that although we all enjoy fluctuating mental health on a regular basis, some of us suffer from mental illnesses which mean we have to pay a greater attention to our mental health and regulate it in ways that some others might not need to.
Having confidence that your employer will not only understand your mental illness but also not look upon you negatively for having a mental illness is a vital factor in helping to overcome the stigma surrounding the issue. We are making progress as a society, but there is still much more progress left to make