Being stigmatized in workplace
Lesley Burns is an occupational therapist; she has been in the field for more than twenty years with experience in the assessment of adults with all kinds of physical, cognitive and psychological problems.
Lesley has added a workshop on understanding and managing mental illness in the workplace to her services. This is due to the increasing causes of disability in the workplace worldwide being due to conditions such as depression and anxiety and still having those be the most misunderstood condition.
We spoke to her in depth about mental illness. She firstly began with highlighting that there are numerous mental illness, close to 300 types.
Although many employers provide counselling services, many people still feel ashamed to use the services, because then people will know that they are suffering with a mental illness. Unlike cancer or any other disease, mental illness carries a stigma attached to it. Some people still view people with mental illness as being crazy and unpredictable.
When some do move away from thinking of mental illness as craziness only then they think of it as weakness and too often the advice they give hear is "get over it" or "I've been through it too, just exercise and eat better".
Mental illness is different for everyone and isn't as simple as it looks. The most appropriate things to do and say is just being there for someone, making them feel valid for going through what they're going through, and just treating it like any other disease - with compassion and empathy.
Lesley also explained the disease Burn Out, which is when a person becomes completely exhausted through overwork. It has earlier this year become recognized as a disease but still not listed as a disabilities.
For more information contact:
Website: https://lesleyburnsoccupationaltherapist.co.za/
Email: tmlb@absamail.co.za
TeL: 011 646 9649
Lesley has added a workshop on understanding and managing mental illness in the workplace to her services. This is due to the increasing causes of disability in the workplace worldwide being due to conditions such as depression and anxiety and still having those be the most misunderstood condition.We spoke to her in depth about mental illness. She firstly began with highlighting that there are numerous mental illness, close to 300 types.
Although many employers provide counselling services, many people still feel ashamed to use the services, because then people will know that they are suffering with a mental illness. Unlike cancer or any other disease, mental illness carries a stigma attached to it. Some people still view people with mental illness as being crazy and unpredictable.
When some do move away from thinking of mental illness as craziness only then they think of it as weakness and too often the advice they give hear is "get over it" or "I've been through it too, just exercise and eat better".
Mental illness is different for everyone and isn't as simple as it looks. The most appropriate things to do and say is just being there for someone, making them feel valid for going through what they're going through, and just treating it like any other disease - with compassion and empathy.
Lesley also explained the disease Burn Out, which is when a person becomes completely exhausted through overwork. It has earlier this year become recognized as a disease but still not listed as a disabilities.
For more information contact:
Website: https://lesleyburnsoccupationaltherapist.co.za/
Email: tmlb@absamail.co.za
TeL: 011 646 9649
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