Books, Articles and Research

Fair society, healthy lives: Strategic review of health inequalities in England post 2010
This paper describes British issues in health equity, social determinants of health, and UK-style societal interventions in both mental health and overall health with mental health playing a critical role.

Mental health, resilience and inequalities
This report explores the evidence that mental health influences a very wide range of outcomes for individuals and communities. These include healthier lifestyles, better physical health, improved recovery from illness, fewer limitations in daily living, and other factors.

Work transitions for peer support providers in traditional mental health programs: unique challenges and opportunities.
Peer support is gaining recognition as a valuable component of mental health service delivery and as a meaningful employment opportunity for mental health consumers. Despite the potential benefits of peer support, there continue to be many barriers to the development and funding of peer positions. This article reports on the results of a multisite project whose goal was to build capacity for employment of trained peer providers in local, community-based mental health programs.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a consumer delivered anti-stigma program: replication with graduate-level helping professionals.
This study evaluated the consumer-delivered anti-stigma presentation In Our Own Voice (IOOV) with Masters of Social Work (M.S.W.) students, replicating a previous study with undergraduates. Thirty M.S.W. students completed pre- and post-presentation surveys to measure changes in attitude, knowledge, and social distance after the presentation. The results of this study further support the effectiveness of IOOV and indicate that graduate-level helping professionals can benefit from anti-stigma programs. Future research should go beyond self-report knowledge and attitude evaluation, test the efficacy of the components of the IOOV program (video, contact with presenters), and test the lasting effects of the program.

"Using Situation Testing to Document Employment Discrimination Against Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities"
Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed or under-employed, with detrimental consequences for their lives and mental health. Although prior research suggests that stigmatization and discrimination contribute to this outcome, the exact extent of such employer behavior has remained largely undetermined. This article reviews the employment situation of persons with psychiatric disabilities, considers traditional ways to analyze the role of discrimination, and proposes situation testing as a new methodology overcoming many limitations of prior research.

Good Practices for Combating Social Exclusion of People with Mental Health Problems
This document tracks the progress of "Good Practices for Combating Social Exclusion of People with Mental Health Problems," a project of Mental Health Europe (EU). The initiative has used a corresponding Web site as a primary strategy to help promote and disseminate strategies to increase social inclusion of Europeans with mental health problems.

Towards social inclusion in mental health?
This article explores the uses of the terms "social exclusion" and "social inclusion" in a mental health context. Focusing on social inclusion as a remedy for the ills of social exclusion, this article discusses implications for contemporary mental health policy, practice, and research and concludes that a better theoretical understanding of causal mechanisms is needed to enable the development of more socially inclusive mental health services.

More Social Inclusion For People With Mental Health Problems, UK
This article chronicles an effort by the British government's Health Ministry to promote social inclusion for people with mental health problems. The national directive targets vocational opportunities, social inclusion, and women-focused services.

Vision and Progress: Social Inclusion and Mental Health
This report examines the progress of the National Social Inclusion Programme as it works to implement the activities outlined by the 2004 Mental Health and Social Exclusion Report. Details are given on the progress made so far and on the work still to be done.

Mental Health and Social Exclusion: Social Exclusion Unit Report
This report examines the impact mental health problems have on increasing social exclusion. The report also developed a 27-point action plan to address this problem.

The meaning and importance of employment to people in recovery from serious mental illness: Results of a qualitative study
Given the high rates of unemployment and underemployment among individuals with psychiatric disabilities, only a small number of studies have investigated the role work has in the lives of people who have been successful vocationally during their recovery from serious mental illness. This study sought to add to existing literature by determining how individuals perceive work and its effect on their recovery.

SESAMI study of employment support for people with severe mental health problems: 12-month outcomes
In the context of UK policy to promote employment for people with disability as a means to greater social inclusion, this study investigated how people with severe mental health problems fare in existing supported employment agencies. The aim of the study was to identify factors associated with successful placement in work and to test the impact of working on psychological well-being in this group.

A study of stigmatized attitudes towards people with mental health problems among health professionals
The project aimed to assess stigmatized attitudes among health professionals directed towards people with mental health problems. The Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire was used to assess participants' attitudes towards fictitious patients from a secure forensic hospital and patients with schizophrenia and substance use disorders.

Drugs and social exclusion in ten European cities.
The aim of this study is to describe social characteristics seen among socially excluded drug users in 10 cities from 9 European countries, and identify which social exclusion indicators (i.e. housing, employment, education) are most closely linked to intravenous drug use.

Implicit prejudice toward injecting drug users predicts intentions to change jobs among drug and alcohol nurses
In the current research, drug and alcohol nurses reported their level of stress working with people who inject drugs , their job satisfaction, their explicit prejudice toward people who inject drugs , and their intentions to leave drug and alcohol nursing.

What to do when you think an employee may need mental health help
This fact sheet list the steps you should take when you think an employee may need mental health help. Steps on education, language and encouraging dialogue are dicussed.

Mental health training for law enforcement professionals
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine topics of interest and preferred modalities of training for police officers in their work with persons with mental illness. Police officers across Massachusetts attending in-service mental health training were asked to rate the importance of potential mental health topics and the effectiveness of potential training modalities on a Likert-type scale.

Small business employers' views on hiring individuals with mental illness
This study investigated the beliefs of small business employers regarding hiring individuals with mental illness. Fifty-eight participants completed mail-in questionnaires concerning beliefs and willingness to hire persons with mental illness.

A cross-cultural study of employers' concerns about hiring people with psychotic disorder: implications for recovery
In this study, we tested this lay approach by comparing employers' concerns about hiring people with psychotic disorder for entry-level jobs in US and China.

Employing persons with serious mental illness
In this study data from various national surveys find that approximately half the population with mental disorders is gainfully employed across the entire range of occupations; such persons have an employment rate of about two-thirds that of the general population.

Mental illness and employment discrimination
This review summarizes recent evidence pertaining to employment-related stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental disabilities.

Employment equity and mental disability
Recent research on the civil rights issue of employment equity for people with psychiatric disabilities is reviewed.

Don't call me nuts! Coping with the stigma of mental illness
Don't Call Me Nuts! is a handbook for persons with mental illness. In its pages are discussions about dealing with self-stigma, knowing when or whether to disclose a mental illness, seven ways to foster personal empowerment, and legal and political remedies. The book explores the public's reaction to stigma through the methods of contact, education, or protest.

Mental illness careers in an era of change
In this article, the authors use data from 238 persons treated in Vermont State Hospital during the 1950s to evaluate several fundamental career assumptions and to illustrate how different predictors are contextualized by the career.

Getting Beyond "Don?t Ask; Don?t Tell": An Evaluation of US Veterans Administration Post deployment Mental Health Screening of Veterans Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan
In this study the authors sought to evaluate outcomes of the Veterans Administration (VA) Afghan and Iraq Post-Deployment Screen for mental health symptoms. Among 750 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were referred to a VA medical center and 5 associated community clinics, 338 underwent post deployment screening; 233 (69%) screened positive for mental health problems.

Psychosis and the experience of employment
This study explored the experiences of people diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in relation to paid employment. Eight participants with experience of paid employment were interviewed. The data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) [Smith et al. (In: Murray, Chamberlain, editors) Qualitative health psychology, 1999].

Twelve month use of mental health services in a nationally representative, active military sample
This article findings indicate that military institutions should continue public education campaigns to de-stigmatize mental health problems and should make necessary changes in health delivery systems to gain the trust of military members. The primary objective of this study was to examine the patterns and predictors of mental health service use in active Canadian Force members. Additional objectives included identification of barriers to service use.

Attitudes towards people with mental illness: A cross-sectional study among nursing staff in psychiatric and somatic care
The aim of the present study was to investigate attitudes towards mental illness and people with mental illness among nursing staff working in psychiatric or somatic care. The sample consisted of 120 registered or assistant nurses who were interviewed about intimacy with mental illness and attitudes about seven different mental illnesses.

Training veterans in recovery
Two female veterans share how peer employment training is making a difference in their recovery from Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD).

Perceived and measured stigma among workers with serious mental illness
This research analyzed the extent to which self-reports of job-related discrimination by persons with serious mental illnesses are associated with econometric measures of discrimination.

Suffering in silence: stigma, mental illness and the workplace
The reality of mental illness in the workplace and the impact, positive or negative, employers have on those who are dealing with it was the focus of this year's Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, a group of senior business leaders and former federal finance minister Michael Wilson (whose son, Cameron, took his life in 1995).

Solutions to discrimination in work and housing identified by people with mental illness
This study examines perceived solutions to discrimination in housing and employment situations.

Mental illness and employment discrimination
This article presents a review of recent research that seeks to determine employment-related stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental disabilities. In this study, researchers take an extensive view of the stigmatization process to include cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, and structural disadvantages.

Managing workplace depression: An untapped opportunity for occupational health professionals
An article discussing how occupational health professionals are the most qualified to design and deliver destigmatized, customer-friendly programs and services to help employees who are depressed. Integration of services like benefits, health promotion, EAP, and human resources across a company can lead to an effective, organization-wide depression initiative.

Workplace effects of the stigmatization of depression
Employers have previously been shown to hold negative attitudes toward mental illness. The purpose of this survey of human resource officers in UK companies was to ascertain whether these attitudes prejudice employment opportunities for subjects with mental illnesses--specifically, depression--and, if so, some of the beliefs upon which these attitudes are based.

Disclosure conundrum: How people with psychiatric disabilities navigate employment
This qualitative study of people with psychiatric disabilities explored the issues of self-disclosing their mental illness and the complex situations around employment and disclosure.

Employment and mental health service utilization in Washington state
This study examined employment among individuals utilizing publicly-funded mental health services in Washington State during a 2-year period through the analysis of archival administrative data.

The sympathetic discriminator: Mental illness, hedonic costs, and the ADA
Discrimination against people with mental illness occurs in part because of how those with mental illness can make other people feel.Thus, a central basis for discrimination in this context is what I call hedonic costs. Hedonic costs are affective or emotional costs: an influx of negative emotion or loss of positive emotion. In addition, the phenomenon of emotional contagion, which is one source of hedonic costs, makes discrimination against people with mental illness peculiarly intractable.

Nearly 10 percent of Iraq vets screen positive for PTSD
This journal article describes a study conducted of the mental state of troops deployed to Iraq and the mental services assessed by and available to service personnel. Information for the study was taken from the Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA) given to all service members upon their return from any deployment. See URL for full text.

Stigma as a barrier to employment: Mental disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act
This study examines the role played by stigma in employers' response to the 1990 Americans with Disability Act (ADA). The article describes employers' experiences with employees with mental disabilities and accommodations, specific employment practices, and attitudes towards those with mental disabilities.

Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care
This study provides an initial look at the mental health of members of the Army and the Marine Corps who were involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our findings indicate that among the study groups there was a significant risk of mental health problems and that the subjects reported important barriers to receiving mental health services, particularly the perception of stigma among those most in need of such care.

Chinese cultural dynamics of unemployability of male adults with psychiatric disabilities in Hong Kong
In this case history, instead of finding realistic employment, a male adult with psychiatric disability tried to indulge himself in what he felt was his ideal job to fulfill all requirements as an adult male in Chinese culture. The imaginative ideal job gave him excuses to discontinue open employment. Its implications to vocational rehabilitation with male adults with psychiatric disability are discussed.

Employment of individuals with mental disabilities: Business response to the ADA's challenge
This research examines the response of the business community to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with specific focus on the employment of those with mental disabilities.

Perspectives of people with psychiatric disabilities on employment disclosure
A qualitative study, including a focus group and individual interviews, was conducted to gather data from people with psychiatric disabilities/labels regarding employment disclosure. Major findings include the significant impact of disability identity (does the participant think they have a disability?), and the importance of appropriate job matching as a disclosure strategy.

Position statement on employment and rehabilitation for persons with severe psychiatric disabilities
The position statement, developed by NASMHPD, encouraged the integration of employment and recovery goals with service delivery to individuals with mental illnesses. The NASMHPD concluded that State mental health agencies should work to develop tools for appropriate evaluation of plan success in moving covered individuals into employment or partial employment settings.

Association between cognitive functioning and employment status of persons with bipolar disorder
The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with employment status among persons with bipolar disorder, including cognitive functioning, severity of symptoms, demographic variables, and variables related to course of illness.

American with Disabilities Act of 1990
The current text of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 [?ADA?], as amended.

Helping people with severe mental illness to obtain work: Systematic review
This research paper explores possibilities for helping people with severe mental illness obtain competitive employment without the intervention of a job placement program. Resulting data and outcomes are based on a systematic review of earlier studies conducted on mental illness and employment.

Employers, insurers integrate benefits
A brief article in which the writer discusses how psychologists are helping employers to integrate disability, health and employee-assistance program benefits into the workplace.

Strategies For success: A consumers' guide to the workplace
This guide was developed for the Access to Real Work project of the Canadian Mental Health Association - National office. It provides hints for new mental health consumer employees, and information on workplace accommodations.

Mental health in the workplace: An issue for one in five employees
This report was developed by a committee of engaged citizens in Minnesota who were asked to examine how the mental health issues of employees impact the workplace and to identify successful strategies or models for addressing the mental health challenges of those working and for accommodating those with serious mental health problems who want to work.

Mental disabilities in the workplace
This article provides an overview of the ADA and EEOC guidelines, as well as tips for employers.

Mental health and work: Impact, issues and good practices
This report discusses a variety of topics, including the importance of work to a person?s mental health, promotion of mental health in the workplace, issues facing employers and managers. It is hoped that this document will assist employers and employees in raising awareness of the benefits of good mental health practices and encourage the implementation of strategies to maintain a healthy working environment.

Mental health in the workplace
This paper discusses the findings of a series of country studies completed by the International Labour Office which examined legislative, policy and programme measures introduced in Finland, Germany, Poland, United States to address the challenge. The studies will assist in developing policy and enterprise-specific programmes which address the prevention of mental health problems and the promotion of good mental health practices and rehabilitation services.

Case studies on reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities
The purpose of this study is to document the employment experiences of 10 workers with psychiatric disabilities, including their use of workplace accommodations.

People with psychiatric disabilities, employment, and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Turning policy into practice
This is a report of the proceedings of a two-day roundtable discussion on "People with Psychiatric Disabilities, Employment and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)" held in January 1995.

A new vision of recovery: People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process
A brief article in which two views of recovery are discussed, rehabilitation and empowerment views of recovery.