In grade 11 my sociology teacher changed the way I looked at those who were unemployed and on assistance. I always thought it was just them being lazy, this might be due to my mom being somewhat prejudice towards people on assistance. My teacher informed me that they don't choose to be without a job, but that some of them are actually unable to hold a job. I was still skeptical about that statement being true until about a year and a half ago. My best friend's sister always had troubles with keeping a job but we just figured it's because she couldn't decide what she wanted to do with her life. Then she was diagnosed with BorderLine Personality Disorder. Even with her medication she still hasn't been able to hold down a job for more than a month.
The unemployment rate of persons with serious mental illness reflects these obstacles and has been commonly reported to range from 70-90%, depending on the severity of the disability. In my opinion, that is an extremely high and disturbing percentage of people. The Canadian Human Rights Commission states that on applications, and during interviews the employers should avoid asking things such as : a list of all disabilities, limitations or health problems, whether the applicant drinks or uses drugs, whether the applicant has ever received psychiatric care or been hospitalized for emotional problems, or whether the applicant has received worker's compensation. Although there are laws in place stating one cannot be discriminated against in the workplace, it seems there is always a way to get around that without it being considered discrimination. According to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, employers are not expected to hire or continue to employ anyone whose disability notably increases the probability of health or safety hazards to themselves, other employees and/or the public. The examples they used are : someone subject to epileptic seizures that are not fully controlled with medication could not be expected to safely perform a job working on a scaffold or driving a truck. Someone with a serious mental impairment may not be permitted to be responsible for children in a day care setting. To me, these examples seem like common sense. People living with a mental, or physical disability generally know their boundaries with what they can and can't do in the work place, and most likely won't put themselves in a position that could risk them not gaining employment.
Even though it seems like the percentage of those unemployed seems quite high, it could be much worse without these laws.
Brittney M
Interesting point- regarding hiring individuals with issues that could impact health and safety. While working at the Maple Leaf plant, I was on the H&S committee, and we were told to encourage people with seizures to tell their supervisor or us. Maple Leaf did try to ask at interviews, but wasn't really allowed too because of laws. But at the same time, I agreed with asking because if somebody goes down with a knife that is not good. But it is so tough to know were to draw the line- like do 6 bad seizures qualify you as unable to work? I don't think so, I think if as long as your safety is assured if you have a seizure, anyone should be able to do whatever job they want, or are able to do.
ReplyDeleteD. Hayward
I can see how it can be difficult to distinct where to draw a line, so that people are not discriminated for when applying for a job. Brittany stated how there are laws in favor of person with a mental illness or a person with a disability; or whatever the case may be but Hayward made a good point that in some jobs it is important to know the persons health before employing a new worker, depending on the safety required to take on that job.
ReplyDeleteAutumn B.
Drawing a line would be very difficult. I believe that anyone can do any job they want, but to a certain extent. A work place should be safe and noone should have the risk of being seriously hurt or worse. Therefore, as long as the person with the disabilty is made comfortable enough to tell people that he or she has one, then the work place can be made into a safe place. Percautions can be made to make sure if he or she, for example, has a seizure, that there would be that know what to do in that case of emergency. I'm curious to know who would be in charge putting these measures in place? Also, I like that there are laws made to help out persons with disablilites.
ReplyDelete- Samantha G
A good friend of mine has Bipolar Type 1. She's in the exact same situation as your best friend's sister. She works but then gets ill and has to be hospitalized. Because she is away from work for weeks at a time she looses her job. I used to ask her why she didn't take it to court but then realized what a stupid question that was. With what money would she be able to hire a private lawyer to take her former employers to court. And unfortunately if you get legal aid then you might as well just buy a dummies guide to the Canadian legal system. No offence to anyone who has friends or family in that line of work but just like social workers they're overloaded with cases and lack the resources in terms of money to carry out their mandates. People with mental illness are usually the last to speak up on their behalf largely because of the extreme stigmatization they have to face in doing so. People with mental illness are marginalized to the extreme. Thanks for doing this post.
ReplyDeleteRachel Ryan-Dorn
I liked the honesty of your post and hearing about how and why your opinion of people living on social assistance has changed. I think it's great that you learned about some of these issues in high school as I was never really encouraged to think about these problems until I started University. This is a very tricky area with no easy answer. While you want to be fair and allow people to find employment, it is very hard to justify putting people's lives in danger. I like how you said that most people had enough common sense not to apply for jobs that they know they can't do. Giving people this kind of credit likely allows them to feel more in control of their lives.
ReplyDeleteCrystal M.
The unemployment rate of individuals with mental illnesses is certainly high. I see why this rate is high for many reasons. Like your best friend sister, having a mental illness does affect your work life. Unfortunately for her, her mental health gets in the way of her work life and she can't keep a job for over a month, but this happens to many individuals with a mental illness that do get the opportunity to work.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we legally cannot discriminate against people with a mental illness, and not allow them to have a job because of their mental illness, it must be hard to hire someone and then loose an employee because their mental health got in the way of work. Full-time work seems impossible for a lot of individuals with mental illness. I agree that individuals with mental illnesses do use their common sense at not applying for jobs such as daycare workers; in which they would probably not be suitable for. It would be nice if there were more jobs available for and targeted at individuals with mental illnesses. After all if they want to work, they deserve to work. They need a sense of self-worth.
Ashley R.
That unemployment rate is...staggering. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from harming themselves or the public, and the laws are meant to do that. On the other hand it the law ends up discriminating against people with physical or mental disabilities. Finding the middle ground on this issue is going to take alot of work. People with physical or mental disabilities and people in general want to feel like they are accomplished something and you don't get that feeling when you are stuck at home.
ReplyDeleteJordan