This is a good thing that these types of initiatives get people to talk about or think about mental health issues in a way that can help deal with stigma. However, the discussion that I seen take place, both in their commercials and in the superficial coverage of the topic in the press tends to increase stigma. These commercials focus on the workplace where the protagonist in the first one tries to explain her absences and depression to a colleague who then winces that she had to be absent during inventory. The second one involved two coworkers referring to a "Stuart" who was off again and they said he was bipolar. Again, the worry about the workload left on his peers.
While this is appreciated to raise this issue in the workplace and to talk about it among larger employers with human resource departments and the time to do this, it is quite another thing to show real life examples of employers actually hiring somebody they know ahead of time has suffered some type of mental health issue. Back in the 1990's, advocates cited a statistic that 80 -90% of people with a diagnosis of serious mental health issues were unemployed, I don't see that figure improving today. It seems that the main advocacy organization in Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association, agrees with me as it refers to unemployment on its website. It saddens me that these commercials always seem to take place in large employers, which comprise less than 4.5% of all employers in Ontario which are for the most part, involved in a hiring freeze or laying people off. A straw poll my own agency in the 1990's conducted with employers of various sizes confirmed that employer attitudes have not changed much.
Mental health issues are complex to address, but it does not have to be expensive or complicated. Accommodations are as individual as the person concerned. Most people who have mental health issues will not inform their employer, for fear it will affect their chances of advancement or cause them to be treated differently than others; however, the major fear which seems to be based in reality is that applicants for positions will not disclose for fear of being denied the job. According to study cited by the CMHA, only 50% of us would disclose to friends and coworkers that a family members has a mental health disorder, while we would disclose the same about cancer and diabetes more than 75% of the time. Only 12% of respondents stated they would retain a lawyer who is known to have suffered from mental health issues. Slightly less than half of us would socialize with a friend we know that has mental health issues, and 27% of us are afraid to socialize with such persons.
The public is inundated by the entertainment industry that makes persons with mental health diagnosis seem violent and unpredictable, while the criminal justice system intersects with the media to make it seem that offenders who have mental health issues are violent, irresponsible and incapable of knowing right from wrong. We see them in movies, slasher films and crime dramas as being haunted by their delusions and hallucinations after they stop taking their medications. When yet another mass shooter or real life slasher like Luka Magnotta wants to be declared not criminally responsible, it sets us back yet another hundred years. The defence of not criminally responsible is rarely applied to violent crimes, but the media wants us to believe it happens all the time. People see this happening and will not seek help, as the conflation between mental illness and violence these situations depict can make an individual not want to be stigmatized in the same way.
The courts have also recognized mental health and addictions as an explanation for an accused's actions and consideration is given in the sentencing, as opposed to using NCR. This still leaves the accused responsible, but offers them a second chance to get clean, to get treatment or to better themselves in a way that will detract them from committing a similar offence in the future. In fact, ninety-five percent of the time, these explanations are used for much less serious and mostly non-violent offences (e.g. shoplifting, theft, fraud). I have used this angle myself while defending people in appropriate circumstances, which explains to the court why they did what they did - and giving it the thrust the person needs - to ask for help. I find the courts are genuinely interested in supporting the right outcomes for the specific accused, as opposed to a blunt instrument of right or wrong.
To me, the stigma is a huge problem for people with mental health diagnosis. The public needs to move beyond the label. Jack is not a :"schizophrenic"; Lucy is not a "manic-depressive" Jack is a person who also happens to have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia (a label I question but nevertheless, the argument here is the same). Lucy is also a person first, somebody who just happened to have been diagnosed as being "manic-depressive". Would it surprise you if I also told you Jack is a published academic, a psychiatrist and the head of a mental health rehabilitation agency? Would it surprise you to learn that Lucy is a high profile defence lawyer who is also an accomplished pianist who in her spare time raises funds for Sick Kids? If you met Jack or Lucy in these other roles and never knew about their mental health concerns, you would never consider that they might just happen to be "one of them"?
This is what today's stigma busting campaigns often forget about. Bringing in accomplished people to talk about their experiences is not a bad thing, but it negates the fact that social class plays a major role in what opportunities each of these folks had in overcoming their issues and obtaining the right supports. I have yet to meet a single one of these champions that spent a good part of their life on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) who was inadvertently handed a major opportunity and viola - here they are! The public needs to see the possible: how these supports, opportunities, respect and understanding, can be extended to all persons with various levels of mental wellness. Opening doors to self-employment, dignified employment, public speaking engagements, and so forth, to me, is more therapeutic to somebody than simply leaving them on ODSP or referring to their "broken brains" (which again has as much art as well as science fiction).
When you read above that only 12% of Canadians would knowingly hire a lawyer who has had a history of mental health diagnosis, what does that say about Lucy? What does this also say to hundreds of employment coaches and employers that are so nervous about hiring people with mental health issues, that they prefer to relegate them to low wage, low skilled jobs, regardless of their talents and potential? I know this because I have interacted with a leader in the insurance industry here in Canada (who I will not identify nor will I identify the companies they work with) who I bumped into at a conference. She told me her companies hire all kinds of people with disabilities, including mental health disabilities. "They love them in the mail rooms," she said. This is unfortunately still a major problem or a group of well educated Canadians would not have needed to form Canadian Association of Professionals with Disabilities - protesting employers that ignore one's talents, carry low expectations and assume that most want to stay on their disability benefits.
If Bell and its sister corporations that are involved in this important campaign really want to accomplish a lot of good with their work, how many people with mental health labels has Bell Canada hired in the past year? Or intends to hire in the future? At all levels of the organization, from the mail room to the next CEO? For its media partners, how many people with mental health disabilities will they hire to produce, direct and appear on various productions? There are a few journalists I know who have been through horrific barriers due to mental health issues. Putting them on front and centre to read the news, to report the news, to produce and present documentaries, or even aid in developing television shows that portray people with mental health issues in a much more positive light? And that is ... just as people. People like you and I.
Now that was my volley. I kindly await yours.
