People With Psychiatric Disabilities Are More Like Us Than Not

Stephaine Parrish Taylor is the Administrator of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the State of Oregon. She has a wealth of experience in working with people with psychiatric disabilities to help them secure and retain employment. As a continuation of the OBLN’s current focus on mental illness, we invited Stephaine to share her expertise with us.

OBLN: Stephaine, we understand that you have a particular interest in, and experience with, the issues of employment for people with psychiatric disabilities. Where did that come from? 

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: Earlier in my career, I spent nearly five years working in community mental health services -working with people who had what was, at that time, called severe and persistent mental illness. They were individuals who were being discharged from the state hospital into community settings. Our goals were to keep people out of the state hospital, improve their functioning and, when possible, get them back to work. I had a variety of roles including providing individual therapy, running an employment program and providing case management services. Later I came here to Vocational Rehabilitation where, for about seven years, I was a counselor-Specialist in the area of mental health assisting individuals with a wide range of psychiatric illnesses to either retain employment, return to work, or start working for the first time.

OBLN: The term “psychiatric disabilities” isn’t well-understood by most employers and, in fact, it can engender some hesitation and reticence from employers. Can you help us to better understand what it means?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: “Psychiatric disabilities” covers a very wide range of conditions and associated barriers. It could range from someone with a phobia to someone with active symptoms of schizophrenia. In between, there are people with anxiety disorders, people with depression, people with personality disorders (people who have challenges in their ability to interact typically with other people). It is a very broad spectrum! Even within that, what I might say for one person might be very different from what I would say about another person with the same diagnosis. There can be important differences in the severity of their illness, how well it is being managed, what the broader context of their lives is like.

OBLN: Given the wide range of psychiatric disabilities, are there certain ones that employers are more likely to encounter in their employees?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: By far, folks with depression are the largest group that employers will see. They will be people already in their workforces, people coming in their doors and seeking employment and… even the employers themselves. Those depressions can range from ones that are very situational (e.g. someone who has lost a close family member or has someone close to them experiencing a major health problem) and will likely pass after a single episode – through to people who will periodically experience depression that will be significant enough to require some accommodation. It is a very wide range.

As we see veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, employers will need to be more aware of post-traumatic stress syndrome. We are going to see these folks come back into our workplaces and employers are going to need to be more prepared to support them effectively.

OBLN: The prospect of dealing with psychiatric disabilities can be a pretty daunting task to the average employer. What should employers know in advance?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: Employers need to understand that folks with these disabilities are more like us than not.

Culturally, we have built up a lot of stereotypes, myths and fears around these folks. For example, you never hear that someone with bilateral hearing loss or someone with an upper extremity amputee has hurt or robbed someone. Unless someone has a psychiatric disability, a person’s disability is seldom mentioned in connection with crime. The image that the press creates is that if you are mentally ill, then you are prone to violence – and that is not the case.

Also, if an employer hires someone through a Vocational Rehabilitation program or a Community Mental Health program, the employer can know that we have confidence that the employee’s ability to do the job that we are referring them to.

OBLN: What if an employer wanted to be proactive about recruiting someone with a psychiatric disability for a job opening. If they were specifically interested in giving that opportunity to someone with a mental health issue, who could they contact?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: If an employer specifically wants to recruit someone with a psychiatric disability, they should contact an organization like Lifeworks NW – a program that specializes in placing people with psychiatric disabilities in the Portland-area workforce.

I should add that many people with psychiatric disabilities are concerned about the stigma associated with having a mental illness and would likely not want to identify themselves to potential employers as having that kind of disability.

OBLN: I know that if an employer needed some good advice on dealing effectively with an employee with a psychiatric disability they could get free telephone counsel from the experts at the national Job Accommodation Network, but are there other resources or advice that you could recommend?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: If a company has one in place, their Employee Assistance Program can be a good resource for them. If the employee is part of the Vocational Rehabilitation program, we continue to be a resource to the employer and employee indefinitely. If the employee is connected with a program like Lifeworks NW, that program would also be prepared to assist the employer and the employee. If not, the employer notices a pattern of behavior that is affecting the employee’s job performance, they should approach the employee in this way; “I have been seeing this pattern of behavior. It concerns me. This is why it needs to be different. What can I do to help you make it more acceptable?” Particularly if the employer already has a longstanding relationship with the employee, the approach may be as simple as “You’ve always been a good employee, but you haven’t been yourself lately. I’m getting concerned. What is going on? Can I do something to help?” 

OBLN: I understand that a majority of accommodations for people with psychiatric disabilities are related to adjustment of work schedules. Can you comment on that?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: Yes, it can often include being flexible about start times, allowing for more frequent breaks and enabling the employee to go to regularly-scheduled appointments. Sometimes even changing an employee’s worksite to one with less distractions is all that is needed.

These kinds of accommodations are less of a problem for companies that already offer employees flexible work hours. If all employees have flexibility in scheduling their work hours, it is an attractive benefit throughout the workforce and disability-related accommodations are not seen as “special”. If, for instance, a company lets its employees flex their start time, some employees may start later in order to get their children to school, some because they are just “a morning person”, or some because they have a disability-related issue.

OBLN: Stephaine, thanks so much for sharing your insights with us. What final words would you like to offer to companies here in Oregon?

Stephaine Parrish Taylor: People with psychiatric disabilities of various types and severities are probably in your workplace already. They are also prevalent amongst your neighbors, friends and families. With oftentimes none or minimal accommodations, these people have a lot to offer in the workplace.

See Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (OVRS) at www.oregon.gov/DHS/vr/

See more on Lifeworks NW  at www.lifeworksnw.org

See the Job Accommodation Network at www.jan.wvu.edu

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