May 19, 2017
Only one in four people with a long-term mental health issue are in work 0

- Employers have a legal obligation to put in place reasonable adjustments for disabled workers. For people experiencing mental health problems, this could include time off for counselling or other medical appointments, changes to their role, moving their workplace or allowing for homeworking.
- An employer may adjust the sickness absence policy for disabled staff where time off is related to a disability. This is in recognition that some disabled people may have different and higher forms of sickness absence and the policy needs to be adjusted accordingly.
- As stigma remains a huge barrier, it may be useful to consider suitable awareness-raising exercises which could include working with trade unions, disabled staff and mental health charities on awareness-raising sessions at lunchtime.
- Employers should create a workplace wellbeing policy which looks at the issue of mental health holistically. This can include information on regular breaks, reducing workplace stress, the importance of physical activity, and signposting to relevant agencies.
- On mental health, like other disability issues, efforts should be made to consult with staff who have experienced mental ill-health. This is in keeping with the notion that disabled people themselves should be able to determine the solutions to the issues they face.
- Employers should include reference to mental health in the sickness absence policy.
- Ensuring senior managers champion awareness of mental health and fight to remove the stigma around mental health in the workplace.
- Engage with the recognised trade union so they can input into all policies related to mental health to ensure collective equality rights for disabled workers.
- The government should abolish tribunal fees to make it easier for those people with mental ill-health who have experienced discrimination in the workplace to access justice.
- The government can make more effort to widely promote Access to Work for people with mental health problems if government funding is required for the adjustments. Access to Work is a government scheme which helps employers access funding to make adjustments to the workplace to enable disabled people to work.
- The government should stop cuts to disabled people’s financial support which make it harder for disabled people to survive and even harder to access work. This includes cuts to Employment and Support Allowance which supports people out of work, and to the Personal Independence Payment, which can support people both in and out of the workplace.