Education helps employees understand mental illnesses

Such heartlessness is rarely seen toward a fellow laborer diagnosed with a serious physical illness.

For example, when a co-worker is diagnosed with cancer, the employee feels warmth, coupled with hope, from others in the company. The ill employee will receive extensive, ongoing words of compassion and encouragement.

When a person faces a physical illness, another typical human response is a strong desire to do something. Associates may begin forming Relay for Life teams, enabling them to take action and raise funds that will be used toward research to find better treatments and possible cures. Deep inside, the staff members hope that what they do will directly help their co-worker.

When a devastating physical diagnosis is received, the patient’s life is put on hold in many areas, often including job performance. Most employers are very sympathetic and accommodating, understanding that the affected employee will not be able to work as fast as before, or handle the same workload or stress level. Work hours will decrease at times. Co-workers and management will pick up the slack in an effort to sincerely help, recognizing the great need for support and assistance.

Stuck in the dark ages

A diagnosis of a mental illness is a different story. The patient rarely tells anyone at work due to the stigma associated with a mental problem. Medication and some talk therapies will help, but the process takes time before the healing occurs, just as it does for co-workers dealing with serious physical ailments. Unfortunately, most people are still in the dark ages when it comes to understanding a mental condition.

A co-worker struggling with a mental illness will traditionally receive the opposite responses from a co-worker with cancer or other serious physical illness.

Due to a complete lack of education and ignorance toward the subject, sympathy will be replaced by a desire to tell the employee to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Avoidance and the inability to make eye contact will be the norm, instead of providing warmth and understanding. So, at a time when the employee least needs to be alone and without support, that may be the case when the issue is mental illness.

Co-workers can become angry when the employee cannot work as quickly or handle the same workload and stress level. Instead of helping with job duties, the employee dealing with mental illness will most likely be written up and possibly terminated by management. This will not be based upon his mental illness, which in most cases would be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Instead, it will be based upon behavior – the employee is unable to satisfactorily perform usual areas of responsibility and is not changing, no matter how many warnings are received from management. But, of course that is the case. The employee is ill and needs time and support.

Alleviating fear

It is extremely unfortunate that people are so uninformed regarding the various types of mental illnesses and how they can help their fellow team members. Some mental health experts say the phrase “mental health” should be eliminated since so much pertaining to the diseases are physiological in nature.

Due to a complete lack of education, coworkers will reflect various negative reactions. The most common is to avoid the person like the plague. Eye contact is next to impossible and some people will actually become afraid. Educating staff regarding mental health and mental illnesses should be given the same amount of time that is spent teaching them about physical wellness programs and diseases.

An idea for a nonthreatening beginning toward learning would be having workers see the Academy Award-winning movie “A Beautiful Mind,” directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe. The movie showed the life of a Princeton professor who is a paranoid schizophrenic. This professor also received the Nobel Prize in economics.

Mental illness affects co-workers just as tragically as physical illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Education is the key, so begin a mental health training program today, and help alleviate unnecessary suffering for employees who are struggling with mental illness.

Lynne Haggerman, M.S., is president/owner of Haggerman & Associates, a firm specializing in management training, retained search, outplacement and human resource consulting. She can be reached at lynne@haggermanandassociates.com.