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The best prescription for mental health? Sometimes it’s just a job The best prescription for mental health? Sometimes it’s just a job
(7 months later)
It almost got lost. In a major report this week, one little point almost got lost. Intended to announce the “biggest transformation of mental health care in a generation”, it called for spending an extra £1bn a year. It also said that “employment” should be recognised as a “health outcome”. It seemed to say, in fact, that people with mental illness should go out and get a job.It almost got lost. In a major report this week, one little point almost got lost. Intended to announce the “biggest transformation of mental health care in a generation”, it called for spending an extra £1bn a year. It also said that “employment” should be recognised as a “health outcome”. It seemed to say, in fact, that people with mental illness should go out and get a job.
For many people, this will have seemed like the last straw. If you’re struggling with a mental illness, it can be hard enough to get up in the morning, let alone leap to the demands of a difficult boss. Every day, more stories pour out: of people who are so depressed, or weak from chemotherapy, that they can hardly put on a kettle, being tested, pronounced “fit” and frog-marched into work. The message seems clear: we don’t care if your life is hard. Your economy needs you.For many people, this will have seemed like the last straw. If you’re struggling with a mental illness, it can be hard enough to get up in the morning, let alone leap to the demands of a difficult boss. Every day, more stories pour out: of people who are so depressed, or weak from chemotherapy, that they can hardly put on a kettle, being tested, pronounced “fit” and frog-marched into work. The message seems clear: we don’t care if your life is hard. Your economy needs you.
Related: 'What hope is there?': five readers on being failed by mental health services | Guardian readers and Sarah Marsh
This, at least, is how many people have interpreted the government’s drive to get more people with disabilities into work. They are being vindictive. People are being hounded. You try half an hour of living with a disability, Mr No-corporation-tax-paying Public Schoolboy. Why don’t you go back to your country mansion and get off their backs?This, at least, is how many people have interpreted the government’s drive to get more people with disabilities into work. They are being vindictive. People are being hounded. You try half an hour of living with a disability, Mr No-corporation-tax-paying Public Schoolboy. Why don’t you go back to your country mansion and get off their backs?
The trouble is that the recommendations in this report were not made by a government desperate to save cash. The recommendations were made by a “mental health taskforce” chaired by the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind. And those recommendations were made because of what the evidence shows to be true. Work is good for you. Having a job is, in fact, often better than therapy or a pill.The trouble is that the recommendations in this report were not made by a government desperate to save cash. The recommendations were made by a “mental health taskforce” chaired by the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind. And those recommendations were made because of what the evidence shows to be true. Work is good for you. Having a job is, in fact, often better than therapy or a pill.
When I was 25 I was struck down by a mysterious illness. After a few weeks I couldn’t walk more than a few yards. After a year of being unemployed and pretty much immobile, I was told that I had an incurable auto-immune disease. At 26, this isn’t news to cheer you up. It took me quite a while to get better. It took therapy, antidepressants, and a daily struggle to fight despair. But most of all, it took work. First part-time, then full-time and then one day I realised that the pain had gone.When I was 25 I was struck down by a mysterious illness. After a few weeks I couldn’t walk more than a few yards. After a year of being unemployed and pretty much immobile, I was told that I had an incurable auto-immune disease. At 26, this isn’t news to cheer you up. It took me quite a while to get better. It took therapy, antidepressants, and a daily struggle to fight despair. But most of all, it took work. First part-time, then full-time and then one day I realised that the pain had gone.
Since then, I’ve had breast cancer twice. The first time, I had two operations, five weeks of radiotherapy and just two and a half weeks off. I wasn’t trying to be a heroine. I was on my own, worried about money and frightened of losing my job. But I think it helped to focus on something other than my illness. I think it nearly always helps to focus on something other than your illness. When you’re seriously ill you need treatment, of course, but I think it helps to see an illness as part of a much bigger life.Since then, I’ve had breast cancer twice. The first time, I had two operations, five weeks of radiotherapy and just two and a half weeks off. I wasn’t trying to be a heroine. I was on my own, worried about money and frightened of losing my job. But I think it helped to focus on something other than my illness. I think it nearly always helps to focus on something other than your illness. When you’re seriously ill you need treatment, of course, but I think it helps to see an illness as part of a much bigger life.
This is just my experience, but the statistics back it up. Work, according to the health and disability specialists Gordon Waddell and A Kim Burton, is “the most effective way to improve the wellbeing of individuals”. It is central to “individual identity, social roles and social status”. And people who “move off benefits” and into work “experience improvements in income, socioeconomic status, mental and general health, and wellbeing”. Which is much more easily said than done.This is just my experience, but the statistics back it up. Work, according to the health and disability specialists Gordon Waddell and A Kim Burton, is “the most effective way to improve the wellbeing of individuals”. It is central to “individual identity, social roles and social status”. And people who “move off benefits” and into work “experience improvements in income, socioeconomic status, mental and general health, and wellbeing”. Which is much more easily said than done.
Related: Depression doesn’t stop when you go to work. It shouldn’t be taboo to tell your boss | Jordan Oldbury
If you want people with disabilities to move into employment, you have to offer proper support. You have to offer psychological support. You have to offer practical support. You have to work with employers to make sure they do what they need to do to make it possible, and you have to make sure that they will offer the right support once the employee is in place. This takes time, effort, and money. You can’t do it without spending some money. You need to work with employers to make sure that the right people are put in the right jobs, and that when they do, they are able to shine. This is good for the businesses, and for the employees. If they are given the right support, disabled employees are less likely to take sick leave than non-disabled colleagues. They are also less likely to leave.If you want people with disabilities to move into employment, you have to offer proper support. You have to offer psychological support. You have to offer practical support. You have to work with employers to make sure they do what they need to do to make it possible, and you have to make sure that they will offer the right support once the employee is in place. This takes time, effort, and money. You can’t do it without spending some money. You need to work with employers to make sure that the right people are put in the right jobs, and that when they do, they are able to shine. This is good for the businesses, and for the employees. If they are given the right support, disabled employees are less likely to take sick leave than non-disabled colleagues. They are also less likely to leave.
My sister had her first breakdown when she was 14. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was still in her teens. I have never met anyone who tried harder to find, and keep, a job. “Since I was asked to resign from Cornhill Insurance and from Milwards Shoe shop,” she wrote on one job application, “I have found it very difficult to find paid employment. I have spent six years trying to find another job.”My sister had her first breakdown when she was 14. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was still in her teens. I have never met anyone who tried harder to find, and keep, a job. “Since I was asked to resign from Cornhill Insurance and from Milwards Shoe shop,” she wrote on one job application, “I have found it very difficult to find paid employment. I have spent six years trying to find another job.”
It’s too late for my sister. By the time she died, she had given up the fight. But it’s not too late for the many other disabled people who want to work. Disabled people, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, are three times more likely to be “lacking but wanting” work than people who aren’t. Let’s do our best to help them find it – with investment, not threats.It’s too late for my sister. By the time she died, she had given up the fight. But it’s not too late for the many other disabled people who want to work. Disabled people, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, are three times more likely to be “lacking but wanting” work than people who aren’t. Let’s do our best to help them find it – with investment, not threats.