Returning To Work After Mental Illness

This is a piece I wrote and submitted to Shift in July.Shift is an organisation that is trying to combat stigma in the work place and was looking for articles from people who were employees or employers of sufferers. I felt my then dual role of Trustee/Service Users would be a fitting contribution
First time I tried it was going back to Market Research Interviewing.Returning To Work After Mental Illness -11th July 2009
What helped was having a sympathetic supervisor who was willing to give me the kind of work I felt capable of completing successfully. I did not feel I wanted to share and she did not ask for all of the facts. I assumed that had she known of my diagnosis (at that time Paranoid Schizophrenia) she may have had reservations about employing me. There is generally as you probably know a lot of ignorance about Mental Illness and a lot of people will lie or withhold information about their health in order to get or retain a job. I would imagine, for a lot of employers, illness of any kind is perceived in terms of avoidable expenditure. At the present time people ‘In Work’ are being asked to double their work load, work at the weekend for no pay, travel long distances because the company has relocated etc., just to retain their jobs. People say they are alright because mental illness is largely perceived as a sign of a weak character. ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen’I let my supervisor assume what she wanted about my ‘depression’ and she did not pressure me to take on anything I felt unable to complete.


For instance I no longer felt secure door knocking or conducting one to ones generally. I felt unable to project myself in a sufficiently positive way. To be successfull in Market Research one needs to think on the fly and re phrase anything that may be construed negatively.As my confidence grew I took on more ambitious projects that involved working in diverse venues i.e. train stations, on trains, petrol service stations, supermarkets etc. I found the panic was always just below the surface and had to work constantly at controlling it. Within six months I had another break down and another stay on a Pyschiatric Ward.

Recovery was much longer.

Even within an organisation affiliated to Mind their is a lot of ignorance about serious mental illness. As a service user I noticed that when I returned to the organisation after my second stay in hospital I was largely left to my own devices. It was only after I rejected atypical antiphyschotic medication and started to regain control of my own thought processess and therefore started communicating with staff that they seemed willing to interact with me. Service users get a lot of support from each other and it is for this that they attend drop ins. But I digress.......

I was approached by DGS Mind with the posibility of becoming a Trustee within six months of my second break down and having been reassured that I would be eased into the role I accepted.The first and most important development was a frank discussion with the C.E.O. about making provision for my possible future illness. I explained that if I got ill again I would need a 6 months recovery period. This was accepted and we proceed on that basis. We are currently, as an organisation undergoing a lot of changes. Belatedly we are putting in to place Social Inclusion strategies that are proving to be controversial, perceived as antagonistic and proving to be difficult to administer.Rather than being eased into the role, I have propelled myself into the middle of what seems to me to be a miasma of uncertainties. The Chief Executive Officer offered to mentor me for the first three months and he has continued to be supportive. We employ numerous councillors and I have access to their services should I require them.

I personally have reservations about councilling as I feel that anyone suffering from any sort of mental illness needs validation of their expressed fears and feelings however absurd they are perceived to be. The one to one, helping you to work through your feelings approach that is currently in vogue needs to be more pro active. Working in the 60’s for large companies in London I assumed every companies employees had access to a Personnel Officer. Some large companies like The London Fire Brigade employ their own councillors. Perhaps the government and the N.H.S. could develop a scheme paid for by National Insurance and Employers that would give access to any employed person in the U.K. to a qualified councillor. More digression oops....


We are in the process of restructuring the organisation to allow for the recruitment of a Day Services Manager. There is always a desire to implement best practises when recruiting. However time and budget management impose their own restrictions. I feel Mind to be an exemplary employer. Obviously being a charitable organisation we are exempt from the pressures of profit making targets, but because of the nature of our work within the voluntary sector I feel we must demand a higher level of commitment from our staff.
Our CEO is commited to Social Inclusion, but the ‘old ways’ die hard. The ‘stigma’ is largely based on fear, ignorance and the dramatisation of mental illness in the media. I constantly encounter situations where my intelligence is underestimated, my words or opinions are not given any weight or creedence and my resiliance to stress is overestimated. Do people who have recovered from mental illness want to work in a competitive, cut throat environment.......I wonder?


Advice from me would be to seek employment in a totally different environment. Try voluntary work for a time. It really is very rewarding if you can afford to do it!