Mental illness

In adulthood, we spend over two-thirds of our waking time at work. Work can be a source of enrichment, development and joy, but also of great suffering. Work is not only remunerative and useful; for many of us, it is a quest for identity in which we are seeking greater meaning for our lives, to contribute to something greater than oneself. The proof lies in that question that we so often ask when meeting someone for the first time: “What do you do?”

Work may be known, as Jean-Pierre Brun so eloquently put it, but to be recognized, we have to count on a more basic paradigm that each individual has the ethical right to have their personal contribution (the part of themselves they have put into their work), or collective contribution, valued and recognized for what it is. For Brun, this recognition breeds self-fulfillment, one of the four essential determinants of psychological health. (Brun, J.P., Biron, C. and Martel, J. (2002) Évaluation de la santé mentale au travail : une analyse des pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines (abridged version). Chair in Occupational Health and Safety Management, p. 78.)

In this day and age, where we are bombarded by statistics about the increase in health problems and mental illness at work, each more worrisome than the last, everyone wants to know: Who is responsible for the mental health of people at work? 

Like a number of authors, at the Mental Illness Foundation we believe it is a shared responsibility, we must be aware of the reality and there must be a will among individuals and organizations to take action. However, to get there, many barriers have to come down, because there is no single cause of mental illness; a number of factors contribute to its onset, often in related areas: sociology, psychology and biology. But when we understand the complexity of mental illness, we can better support people who show early symptoms of it and encourage them to seek professional help they might need.