“The sins of the fathers are to be laid upon the children” (from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene V). And so it goes when we start to talk about mental health in the US, and the US workforce.
My social media advisor would tell me not to use the article I’ve linked below. It’s an old article (2013), it’s critical of Ronald Reagan (a third rail, although he might not mind that so much), and it’s just too long for most people to read. Nevertheless now, with mental health on everyone’s mind as we roll into our 2nd year of Covid uncertainty, is not the time for sound bites. We have to be willing to read and think hard. To quote Andrew Shepard of An American President fame, “we have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them” (still a favorite – the quote is at 2:04)” When I say we need serious people, I mean you, and me. We all had best get serious.
Mental health defunded: The sins of the fathers
For those of you who won’t follow the link to the article, or do and believe you can’t spare the time to read it, here’s the cheat sheet to the article’s point:
- The development of antipsychotic medications made it possible for those with chronic mental illness to live outside institutions and in the community.
- We created a system, finally enacted fully (if over-simply) under Jimmy Carter, in which we could safely de-institutionalize those patients by funding community mental health centers (CMHC) to provide support.
- Before the ink was dry, Ronald Reagan – who never did understand mental illness – swept Carter out of office and immediately dismantled the CMHC system by defunding it federally, just as he had in California as governor before it really even got off the ground.
- Unsurprisingly, the states didn’t, or couldn’t, make up the shortfall, and so services got cut.
- We ended up with the chronically mentally ill wildly over-represented among the homeless. More and more untreated psychotic patients were out on the streets and we saw an unsurprising increase of violent crimes committed by those psychotic people, which was sensationalized and completed blown out of proportion.
- Mental health stigma got worse, not better.
Mental health misunderstood: Are to be laid upon the children
What does that have to do with now? Our attitudes haven’t changed fundamentally, despite some progress. We still view homeless people as mentally ill, we think mentally ill people are dangerous and morally deficient, and we have almost no interest in funding programs that might actually help. Or at a minimum, even where there is interest there is insufficient will.
So now when in 2021 we start to talk about the stress that workers are feeling from the pandemic, we don’t know how to think about it effectively. We confuse people who are stressed with those who are mentally ill, we stigmatize them (and often, ourselves), and we haven’t a clue how to help. We are afraid to ask for help, and we are afraid to offer it lest we cross some imaginary HR line.
Worse, we confuse people being stressed and stretched – which may require support but does not require treatment and is not an impairment – with those who have mental health disorders – which need both support and treatment and may be an impairment.
Do you own or run a company? How might you think outside the box to truly incorporate an understanding of mental health in your strategy? I guarantee that failure to do so will damage the bottom line.
Do you manage a team? How can you support your people – really, not with lip service – as they make efforts to take care of themselves, their families, and also meet professional and production standards?
Are you a front-line worker who is now home, juggling all those balls (hint: some bounce and others break – take care of the breakable ones first), and feeling isolated? How can you connect with your friends and coworkers for a water-cooler talk or a break-time coffee?
We must have these conversations. They take time and intelligence. We have serious problems, and we need to be serious people to solve them.
Dr Les Kertay
Here’s the article that got me started: Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness
