Mar 23 2008
Eliminating the stigma of depression at work
In Australia we have made considerable progress in increasing awareness of depression in society which is fantastic. I remember when I had my first really bad bout of depression 20 years ago I had no idea what depression was. I had been to university but never knew that this was a clinical condition. I felt such shame going to a psychiatric hospital that I insisted my wife tell work that I had a really bad “virus”. That whole episode was kept a close family secret for so long because of my shame.
Fast forward to today, and as highlighted previously, there has been some progress. Unfortunately, the discussion of mental illness at work is still largely taboo. When doing research for my book “Back From The Brink” I asked people if they had personally experienced depression. Sixty five percent said they had experienced strong or very strong stigma. To try and find out where that stigma occurred I asked people how comfortable they were discussing their depression with various people. 61% said they were comfortable talking with their General Practitioner, 50% with their partner, 41% with their close friends, 28% with family, and 9% yes 9% with work colleagues. So 9 out of 10 people with depression don’t feel comfortable discussing it with work colleagues.
With the World Health Organisation saying that depression is going to be the second most disabling condition facing the world by 2020 pretending that mental illness doesn’t happen at work in absolute lunacy for both individuals and the organisation.
I am in the final stages of preparing a free ebook called “Best Practice in Managing Mental Illness in the Workplace” where I have pulled together information from around the world and looked at some of the recent successes in this area. It will be launched on Wednesday when John Brogden speaks at an AIM forum about mental health in the workplace. It will also be discussed the same day at a forum for Equal Employment Opportunity professionals.
We have to start standing up and talking about these issues openly. I look forward to any comments.
Kind Regards
Graeme
