An Effective Approach to Mental Health Challenges: A Framework for Best Practice in the Workplace

Drawing from first-hand experiences the authors demonstrate that three strands are necessary to enable those with severe and enduring mental health challenges to be more likely to thrive in the workplace: preparation into work, reframing of the culture of the workplace and a wider recognition of the impact of cultural determinism in developing presuppositions about people who are identified with severe/enduring mental health challenges. We draw on an understanding of how people with severe/enduring mental health challenges have been pathologized and reactions transported into the population through an uncritical orientation, creating a narrow populist assumption which reinforces the perception of mental illness as something to be ashamed or afraid of. In considering the development of workplace practice the authors suggest a model that seeks to challenge the discreditation of people with severe and enduring mental health needs using a ‘Cultural Reform’ model of practice developed with service users.