I was a panelist last Friday on the BBC radio program called World Have Your Say. The title of the program was Should You Make Your Mental Illness Public? Debates like this are being held throughout Europe as the continent mourns the suicide of Robert Enke, the beloved German soccer player and young husband and father. Enke kept his illness from everyone but his wife. And now we are asking ourselves all kinds of questions about how mental illness should be handled in public. But our panel discussion strayed to whether employers should be allowed to ask and employees be required to tell employers about their mental illness.

I used the word “abhorrent” to describe the idea. Where would it stop? Would bosses be allowed to ask about other medical conditions, such as AIDS? In a way it is not really an issue. If an employer really wants to know whether a job candidate or employee is being treated for a mental illness, just do a drug test. Most workers believe they are being tested for marijuana and opiates. But there are employment drug tests that screen for a smorgasbord of drugs, including antidepressants and mood stabilizers.

The civil libertarian in me want to stamp her feet and claim invasion of privacy. But I understand why employers want to know. Depression is the number one workplace disability in the United States. Overall, mental illness costs employers an estimated $140 billion a year in disability, lost wages and productivity. There is also the “Ola Nolen” factor. I covered Ola Nolen’s murder trial back when I was a beat reporter. Ola – a sweet-looking grandmother – had thrown gasoline on a coworker and tossed a match on her because she believed the woman had stolen the $1 million check that John F. Kennedy had given Ola to solve the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ola had paranoid schizophrenia. Would Ola’s horribly burned coworker be alive today if Ola’s employer knew she was mentally ill? We don’t know.

Last week a gunman in Orlando walked into the engineering firm that laid him off last year and opened fire. One man was killed and five injured. The gunman had a long, documented history of schizophrenia and believed his former employer was attempting to block his unemployment benefits.

Robert Enke hid his depression. He was worried about what people would think –  would he be thought incapable of being a responsible father and brilliant soccer star? There can be severe consequences whatever decision a person makes – to tell the boss or not. But should bosses be allowed to ask me if I am mentally ill? Should I be forced to out myself to get a job?

Help me out here. What is your answer?

Comments

This post currently has 10 comments/trackbacks.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

Trackbacks

From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (November 17, 2009)

From Psych Central's Christine Stapleton:
uberVU - social comments (November 17, 2009)

    Last reviewed: 16 Nov 2009