Some Approaches to Employment Problems in Chronic Psychiatric Illness

Abstract

A personnel manager told me of a father who said of his son who had had some mental illness, “I didn't know what a nice son I had until he got a job.” Even the most apparently dreary work may be a life saver for someone with chronic psychiatric problems. On the other hand, an able young man in one of the work projects I discuss here was outraged by the boring packing work he had had earlier in his illness. But clearly a whole constellation of problems, stemming from the person concerned and from society, provides obstacles to getting work, interesting or otherwise, and keeping it. Many approaches have been evolved over the years in the provision of work as therapy, with graded work, detailed assessment, and perhaps psychological methods, and of later work with support as necessary. However, it is still all too common for these people to sit at home doing absolutely nothing.