Mental illness frequently makes people leave the labour market or prevents them from entering it. The problem can be partially explained by the prejudice, taboos and ignorance faced by people with mental illness.
Research carried out by The Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) indicates that Danes are significantly more reticent towards colleagues with mental illness than towards colleagues with a physical ailment.
A better understanding of mental illness will contribute to the social inclusion of people with mental illnesses in the workplace. Research has shown that stigma from employers has a significant effect on the inclusion of people with mental illness in the market place.
An evidence that we need more tolerance and understanding about mental illness in the labour market is the fact that Denmark tops the European ranking of countries in regard to reasons for granting disability pensions. Here, more than half of the disability pensions are awarded because of a mental illness.
Activities
In cooperation with different actors within the labour market, ONE OF US has run several initiatives targeting the workplace. One long-term goal is to create more awareness about mental health, which may contribute to reduce sick leave caused by the problem and provide better conditions for inclusion of people with mental illness.
The video below is one of the results of ONE OF US initiatives in this area.
At the Building Site
This is a video that deals with mental illness in the workplace, and the importance of taking the first step and trying to help a colleague with a mental illness by talking with him/her about the problem. Duration: 2:02 minutes Language: Danish with English subtitles