The Equality Act is a very welcome step forward and codification of other pre-existing pieces of discrimination law, but one area, of increasing significance to modern life, where discrimination is still accepted is for mental health.

Some aspects of mental health problems are of course covered by disability discrimination law, but this is always difficult to assess when it comes to the definition of disability and does not cover a situation where an individual has suffered from, for example, depression or another mental health condition in the past which has not resurfaced at the relevant time.

Under the existing law (a new Bill has been proposed to change the law) jurors, MPs, school governors and company directors can lawfully be removed from their positions due to previous mental health problems.

The proposed new legislation is in the form of the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill and it has reached a second reading in the House of Lords. The current position is anachronistic and should be changed asap, so watch this space and it looks good for a change to go through.

Unfortunately, it seems that employee’s perceptions of the issue are very different as this very interesting and useful post suggests. Does this perhaps suggest that employers think they are giving the rights signals to employees but aren’t, that employees are bringing their own fears and prejudices on the issue without finding out what their employers reactions are, or perhaps employers want to be seen to be saying all the right things but the reality is very different. Maybe it’s a  mixture of all these elements, which makes some sense to us.

Worth remembering of course that defining a mental health issue is very tricky in itself. Some conditions are now clearly defined and measurable such as schizophrenia whereas stress and depression can of course often be subjective and transitory in nature, so it is possible that employers might be answering that a clear menatal health diagnosis would be something they are sympathetic to but what is their reaction to an employee signed off on a short term basis for stress ?

This is an issue which impacts on millions of people a year, we would be very interested to hear from you with your views and experiences, so please post a comment or otherwise get in touch.

]]> http://www.mentalhealthactreview.org.uk/perception-gap/feed/ 0 http://www.mentalhealthactreview.org.uk/employers-and-mental-health/ http://www.mentalhealthactreview.org.uk/employers-and-mental-health/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:35:06 +0000 http://mentalhealthactreview.org.uk/?p=1 Continue reading →]]> Increased recognition of mental health issues by employers

The vastly increased amount of data and access to Government data by way of Freedom of Information requests has led to a far greater understanding of mental health by employers.

Whilst there is a long way to go for many employers to be described as empathetic in reality, they at least understand the cost and risks associated with employee mental health issues.

Stress, depression or anxiety are acknowledged as being the leading cause of long-term employee absence which has been calculated as costing over £1,000.00 for each employee annually.

A survey of employers by the Shaw Trust  reveals :-

• only 11% believe that none of their employees will have mental health issues
• 41%  believed that none of their staff would have mental health issues in 2006
• Some 90% of management are open to discussing any mental health problems with affected staff