What do I tell them?

The former Disability Rights Commission (now part of the Equality & Human Rights Commission) offered this advice in relation to employment:

'An employee is not legally obliged to declare a disability to an employer or prospective employer. Naturally people will be reluctant to disclose their disability to a prospective employer fearing this will result in the failure of their job application. However, disclosure can help to alert employers to a person’s particular needs and thereby facilitate the provision of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, which otherwise may not be provided due to the prospective employer’s lack of knowledge of disability. If a prospective employer is not aware of a job applicant’s disability they may have a defence to a claim of failure to make reasonable adjustments.

'The Disability Discrimination Act does not prevent employers from asking you for information about your health or disability but they must not use it to discriminate against you. If all job applicants are asked for the same information and this information is, or may be, relevant to the ability to do the job (after a reasonable adjustment), this would not be discriminatory. Asking about the effects of your disability might also be important in helping your employer to decide what adjustments ought to be made.

'It is up to you whether you wish to tell your employer about your disability. However, if your disability actually affects your way of working, you should talk to your employer and to your colleagues about it if you want a reasonable adjustment to be considered.' 'If your employer doesn’t know that you are disabled, your employer may not have to make changes which would help you. However, if, for example, your condition gets worse (e.g. asthma) and you feel you may need a reasonable adjustment, you can change your mind and tell your employer at a later date. From that time onwards your employer may have to take some action.'

In a paper published in February 2009 by NAT, THT and Rethink, the following observations are made:

'If someone lies in a job application in relation to their health status and this is later discovered, they could lose the job (this is called a breach of mutual trust). Research reveals that one in ten employers has withdrawn a job offer because the applicant had lied or misrepresented their health situation on the health-screening questionnaire. Seven per cent of employers have dismissed an employee while in employment for the same reason. Withdrawn job offers or dismissal on these grounds is twice as common in large organisations (Labour Market Outlook: quarterly survey report – Autumn 2007’ (2007) CIPD).
'This is particularly relevant to people living... with mental illness as people’s experience of stigma and discrimination mean that some are unwilling to disclose their status on health-screen questionnaires in advance of a job offer being made.'

And the Law is changing...
Click for information about The Equality Act 2010

"What do I tell them about my mental health problem?" is probably the most frequently asked question asked by employees and people applying for jobs.

Knowing what to say or whether to say anything at all is always a difficult area. Fear of the reaction such disclosure may receive is also an important contributory factor but it's also important to avoid generalisations about how employers will react. Some people report incidents of immediate loss of interest but not disclosing can result in problems later on. For others though it opens up the scenario to put the right support in place and people's experience of mental ill health can be a very positive attribute to offer an employer. Managers and colleagues don’t need to know the full details of the mental health situation but will find it valuable to know how they can help.

Support is available. Whether it’s someone to talk to at particular times, support and advocacy in a meeting, help to manage the workload or break tasks down in to more manageable, bite-sized chunks, to travel with you to and from work or give you an alarm call because your medication makes you drowsy. Employers may be able to get financial help to pay for the costs of such support through the government’s Access to Work programme.

MINDFUL EMPLOYER^® is working with employers to help put good practices in place to ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support. A tangible sign of the willingness to address such issues is the Charter for Employers and many employers are using it’s principles to the benefit of staff. Charter signatories are entitled to display the MINDFUL EMPLOYER logo as a demonstration that they are working towards the aspirations of the Charter.

We are aware that the appearance of the MINDFUL EMPLOYER logo on job adverts or other publicity may lead jobseekers or employees to think that it's like other accreditations such as the Disability Symbol (two ticks), Investors in People or Chartermark where a set of clearly-defined standards have been achieved. It is important to remember that the Charter is a voluntary agreement which seeks to support employers in working within the spirit of its positive approach. MINDFUL EMPLOYER is not a policy, nor a target nor a set of standards. The Charter is about working towards the principles of it not the immediate fulfilment of them – signing up is a step along a journey not the end of it and these things do take time. Being a Charter signatory doesn't mean 'getting it all right': but it does indicate a willingness to work towards better practice.

Feeling Stressed: Keeping Well
Is it possible to help prevent people from becoming unwell? Here is a preventative approach towards harmful levels of stress at work. Feeling Stressed: Keeping Well is a practical, common sense personal workbook suitable for all staff to use. Published by MINDFUL EMPLOYER - click on the title to download.

Directgov
Visit the Directgov website for some more general guidance and further links.

Employees

What do I tell them?