People with Mental Illness & Unemployment

By Mike Flaherty, Organizational Consultant
The Rural Institute
The University of Montana

It is difficult to imagine that children born almost ten years ago in the United States have never lived in a period of economic decline. These kids don't remember the hard times because the economy has hummed along at a brisk pace during the longest peacetime economic expansion the US has ever known. Inflation and unemployment are at historic lows. Wages are slowly creeping higher. The US economy is the envy of the world. Throughout most of Montana, it seems anybody who wants a job can have his or her pick of one. There is one segment of our population, however, whom the economy has left behind in its wake.

So who are these people who have been left behind? They are our family members, neighbors, acquaintances, and in some instances, just recognizable faces in the crowd who share one thing in common: they are persons with chronic mental illness. Roughly 80 to 90 % of people with psychiatric disabilities are unemployed, due in part to the stigma of mental illness.

Images from the media would lead us to believe that everybody with a mental illness is dangerous, or at least has a greater propensity for violence against others. This stigma severely hinders people with mental illness trying to integrate into society through work, play, worship, or other social outlets, but especially integration in the workplace.

The attitudes of the mentally ill as inherently violent people are also common in law enforcement. Almost one-third of all US jails incarcerate people with severe mental illnesses who have no charges against them, but are merely waiting for a psychiatric evaluation or the availability of a psychiatric hospital bed.

The good news about mental illness is that success rates for treatment are very high. The success rate for treatment of schizophrenia is 60 %, for severe depression 65 %, and for bipolar disorder, sometimes known as manic depression, the success rate is 80 %. Compare this success rate to treatment for heart conditions, which ranges from 41-52 %.

Given these high success rates for treatment, the best form of rehabilitation for somebody with mental illness is a job, where interaction and problem solving are key to recovery and a bolster for self-esteem. Often people with mental illnesses take medications with dramatic side effects like drowsiness. Flexible work hours, the most common job accommodation, let those with mental illness be productive and integrated members of the workforce.

If people knew how common mental illness is as a biological disorder, we could go a long way towards helping those with their illnesses. One in five families will be affected in their lifetime by a family member with a severe mental illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or clinical depression. In fact, the number one reason for US hospital admissions is a biological psychiatric condition. Mental illness is more common than most people realize, but it's swept under the rug to the detriment of those seeking treatment and the people who live and work with them.

Over the years, the Rural Institute at the University of Montana has helped many people with mental illness find employment through such sources as the Job Training Partnership Act and Vocational Rehabilitation Services. By providing support for job searches, on the job training and post-employment services like job coaching, we can help people with mental illness be productive, self-sufficient members of society because everybody deserves a chance to have a meaningful job with a decent wage and a place in the community. For more information, contact Mike Flaherty at the Rural Institute Training Department (877) 243-2476, Toll Free.