A few years ago, during an otherwise normal working week, businessman Jonathan Naess was very publicly sectioned under the Mental Health Act. It was a humiliating experience. Naess was a successful corporate financier with a long career in the City.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression) and placed in a locked ward in a psychiatric hospital.
While hospitalised, he had an interesting discussion with a psychiatrist about how prevalent it was for businessmen to suffer from a mental illness. It was this discussion which prompted him to ‘come out' as mentally ill to his employer - a risky decision in the competitive world of finance - and to carve out an unlikely role for himself as a mental health campaigner.
Coming Out
A few years later with the spell in hospital a distant memory, Naess rebuilt his self-confidence and proved his success at his job by continuing to make money for his employer. He then took a year's sabbatical during which he set up an anti-stigma charity, Stand to Reason. Coming out and deciding to campaign were difficult decisions but Naess says he felt compelled to do it. ‘The idea for Stand to Reason is to encourage people to - if they can - put their heads above the parapet. A bit like Stonewall did with gay people.'
To combat stigma effectively he says people ‘from all walks of life' including those in senior positions need to be visible and to use the exposure to prove that people who experience mental ill-health are not a ‘sub-species'. For Naess, this means focusing on an area where people who have a mental illness are more likely than any other group to be discriminated against: work.
In a survey of employers, one in three said they thought people with a mental health problem were ‘less reliable than other employees'. Naess says the need to educate employers "cannot be underestimated". With this in mind he has been establishing a network of professionals to campaign alongside him and contribute professional expertise. Naess admits that he was concerned people would be reluctant to sign up, fearing negative ramifications at work. "I thought there might be just two or three of us and I wasn't sure if we'd only get retired people." All of the volunteers are of working age.
"There is a widespread perception that retaining a person with a mental health problem creates a risk for a company. That's something we need to break down," he says.
Through the Department of Health's latest anti-stigma initiative, Shift, the government issued "tips" for managers on how to deal more effectively and fairly with employees' mental health problems, including how to spot signs of problems early. Naess praises the initiative.Where possible, Naess hopes to work in partnership with other organisations, including the government, but he believes Stand to Reason has its own contribution to make. "We believe an organisation run by professionals who have suffered mental ill-health is uniquely placed to make the economic argument for a change in attitudes and to tackle discrimination."
But, can historical attitudes change, particularly in the current difficult world of high unemployment generally? Is there any hope in a world where mental health issues continue to produce that age-old stigma?
Let us hope that businessmen like Naess can start to turn the tide.
