Mental Illness & Stigma

[BarbTherese]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1342108269' post='2454968']
My husband deals with these issues everyday. During our last labor crunch when restaurants were closing due to lack of workers and McDonald's was paying $15/hour to start, he applied for a part time job at Catholic Social Services. They were desperate to fill it according to everyone we talked to, and it was the same type of job that he had done at Canadian Mental Health for five years so he was qualified. They wouldn't even give him an interview and the position remained vacant for six months. They did ask him to join their Board if Directors. He declined.

That was a stima issue. Sometimes though it is just about money or playing favorites. Ask yourself if you think you would have been fired if you hadn't had a mental illness. Sometimes it is just easiest to fire the disabled person when a job cuts back personnel. That happened to a friend of my husband. Sometimes it isn't institutional stigma but just the person doing the firing. I lost a volunteer slot once because the secretary I was helping out was afraid I wanted her job.
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Thank you for very much for sharing your experience, Catherine, and your thoughts Actually, your husband's experience underscores something of which I am aware on the mental illness/stigma issue. Interesting that you are in Canada (I take it) and I am in Australia. Thank you. My neice's husband worked for a while in the public mental health area here in Sth Aust.

Edited July 13, 2012 by BarbaraTherese