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Mental Health Issues In the Workplace

By Sarah Wimberly
November 30, 2015

The challenges inherent in managing employee mental illness were vividly illustrated for the world in March of this year with the intentional crash of a Germanwings aircraft by an apparently mentally ill pilot. Although the repercussions of such tragic events can be more significant in safety-sensitive industries like transportation, these kinds of tragic events can happen in any workplace. And the headlines unfortunately often just reinforce the very stereotypes that our laws were intended to eradicate.

Background

Mental illness is more prevalent than many think. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that almost 20% of American adults suffer from some kind of mental illness, but that only about half of those affected receive any kind of treatment. Although the stigma that attaches to mental illness has lessened somewhat over recent years, employees whose mental illness is impacting their workplace performance or behavior are often reluctant to disclose it to their employer. And sometimes employees do not even realize that mental illness is the cause of poor performance or problematic behavior.

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