Workplace Wellbeing: Striving to end stigma surrounding mental health
Pic: iStock
Gary Kiernan from Clare experienced a mental health crisis in 2018.
The now 60-year-old general manager with Tusla hadn’t realised that he had been living with severe recurrent depression for years.
“I’d put it down to my personality,” he says. “I thought I found it hard to be around people because I’m one of 17 children and needed my own space.”
In 2018, he was forced to admit it was more than that. “You know the song ‘Stop the World, I Want to Get Off’,” he says.
“That’s how I felt. All I wanted to do was lie down. Everything else, from brushing my teeth to taking a shower or changing my clothes, felt like too much.”
Until then, he had always managed to continue working, despite his mental health challenges. As a husband and father, he felt he had no other choice.
“But I no longer had the energy to engage with my colleagues,” he says. “I knew I had to do something, so I went to see my GP.”
His GP immediately referred him to the regional hospital’s psychiatrist, and from there, he was sent to St Patrick’s University Hospital in Dublin, where he stayed for the next three months.
Kiernan explains that such a long stint is the norm for mental health patients.
“It takes a while for the medication to take effect and get you out of the hole you’re in,” he says.
“Then you have to start looking at what’s really going on for you, and that’s not a short process.
"I needed four more admissions, all of similar durations, between 2018 and 2022 to finally get back on my feet.”
He worried about explaining his long absences from work to his employer. His main fear was that his depression would be seen as a sign that he could no longer be trusted to do his job.
But over time, he came to view his mental health problems as more akin to a disability.
“You can have a disability and still have a lot of ability,” he says. “My organisation seemed to think that too, and ever since I told them, they have provided me with the support I need to do my job.”
Kiernan’s initial reluctance to divulge his diagnosis isn’t uncommon.
The St Patrick’s Annual Attitudes to Mental Health and Stigma Survey interviewed 1,000 adults this summer and 42% said they would feel uncomfortable telling their boss they needed time off for mental health difficulties.
Another 47% were unaware that employers have to provide reasonable accommodations for staff who experience such difficulties.
Paul Gilligan, CEO of St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, understands why stigma still surrounds mental health in Ireland.
“Until relatively recently, people with mental health issues were put into asylums and left there for the rest of their lives,” he says.
“We deprived them of their freedom in order to keep them and us safe and the history of that still sits with us.
The emotions that accompany mental health issues are another reason why people don’t like to talk about it.
“Feeling weak and ashamed of that weakness is often part of mental illness,” says Gilligan. “So is self-blame. We don’t want to draw attention to those negative feelings.”
That thinking is changing, with Gilligan praising the mental health education in Irish schools for being among the best in Europe.
“Thanks to that, we’re beginning to acknowledge that everyone runs into mental health issues as they go through life,” he says.
“The next step is teaching people the resilience to deal with these issues.”
He believes the workplace can contribute primarily by creating a mentally healthy work culture.
“This means trusting that employees are capable of doing their jobs and want to do them successfully,” he says.
“It means prioritising a learning mentality in which people try to solve problems together.
“And it means focussing on people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses.”
Chartered occupational psychologist Lynne Forrest points out that employers have a legal obligation to employees with mental health problems.
“The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 prevent discrimination in employment in Ireland based on nine protected grounds, including disability,” she says. “And that includes mental health.”
This extends to providing such employees with reasonable accommodations, which are practical supports that allow them equal opportunities to participate in employment.
These supports are likely to differ from person to person. “A neurodivergent person might need environmental accommodations such as working in a quiet environment, whereas someone with social anxiety might ask not to be exposed to large groups at work,” says Forrest.
For Kiernan, the most important accommodation was being allowed to work from home.
“It was a huge relief to be told I could do most of my work from home,” he says.
“It means I can spread my work according to my ability, taking 10 minutes to walk around the garden or taking a nap if I have to, something I’d never have been able to do in the office.”
He is now a member of an employee support group within Tusla, which lets others know that such reasonable accommodations are available.
“Together, employers and employees can change the focus from disability to improving everyone’s ability to do their jobs.”
Not everyone has an employer like Kiernan’s. John (not his real name) had to take time off work following hospitalisation with a major depressive disorder. Though his employers were initially supportive, their promise of reasonable accommodations never materialised.
“I had to take a half-day from my annual leave every week to attend a recovery programme,” he says.
“And I was given more and more work to do even though I was already maxed out. I felt like my employer wanted me out the door, and from talking to others, I don’t think my experience is all that unusual.”
He would like to see a different approach prevail. “Just as someone with a broken leg might return to work on crutches, we should recognise that it can take weeks or months for someone with a mental health issue to recover fully,” he says.
“But time off for counselling or a phased return to work can help with that process.”
Kiernan knows how fortunate he is to work in the public sector, which has the funds to provide employee supports, but he thinks employers are mistaken if they assume that these supports have to be expensive.
“What was most important to the success of my recovery when I went back to work was having a manager who listened to me and made me feel understood,” he says.
“For that reason, I think it’s crucial to train all staff to move beyond the stigma and to know how best to respond when someone divulges a mental health issue.”
Forrest agrees that training is vital. “It will foster more communication,” she says.
“It will make people aware of the policies, procedures, and systems in place to support employees. And most importantly of all, it will encourage people to speak out and seek help.”
Everyone will benefit from such an approach, Gilligan points out. “All organisations depend on their staff,” he says.
“By focusing on how they can enable people to do their jobs, employers will make staff happier, more productive, and more capable of achieving their goals. Staff wellbeing improves, and so does the company’s bottom line.”
