Mental Illness and Employment

I was pretty busy with a lot of things during the last few weeks; actually I still am.  So it has taken me some time to get back to writing. For those who would like to know what has happened to the “orang minyak” of my last post:

A few days after posting that article, I was told that he had been caught by a ‘bomoh’ from Kelantan, who walked around the places where the “orang minyak” had been sighted with an open bottle, chanting incantations, calling the spirit of the “orang minyak”. Apparently he must have caught the fellow in his bottle, because after that ‘exercise’ the “orang minyak” was not seen or heard of again behind the Batu Caves, and the armed neighborhood ‘security’ gangs have disbanded.

Enough of this sorry and scary episode.

Mental Stress and Illness and Employment

What I would like to write today is about how we treat people who have problems, mental problems, as friends, colleagues, employees, etc.

In various places where I have worked throughout my working life there were colleagues who had mental problems and mental illnesses. I also have a number of friends who had mental problems or illnesses during some times of their life.

When I did my practical training in a library in Berne in the Seventies, there was a Swiss woman in her fifties also working there at the headquarters. She wrapped the library books in plastic self-sticking foil, and fitted the lending pocket and strip into the back cover, so that the books were ready for lending out.

She was a quiet and friendly woman, but she absolutely hated to be touched. She claimed that she will get really bad pimples and sores from the ‘badness’ of the people who touched her, so absolutely no hand shakes! She also could not stand any pictures of nakedness, and when she had to process medical books, or books on sex education etc. which just then proliferated, she started to shout and swear loudly and threw those books into the dustbin. 

She had two pet rats, who were always with her and who she treated as ‘her children’. She washed them daily under the running water with a toothbrush, and shared her packed lunch from home with them at her desk. The rats were absolutely tame and followed her every word. She was a strict vegetarian, and absolutely horrified when coming across a butcher’s shop, or the meat department in a supermarket.

Some of her colleagues really hated her and her two rats. They provoked a ‘shouting and swearing’ episode, called the mental health department, and had her taken – two huge warden from the mental hospital came, held both of her arms (remember: she absolutely hated to be touched) and forced her out of the office, into an ambulance. 

I just arrived at the office when the ambulance was driving off with her crying out loudly inside. To this day I am haunted by this. I was never able to find her. As far as I know she had no family, and I was just a teenager doing a stint of practical training. None of the other library staff wanted to help me. So to this day I don’t know what has happened to her after that; I have never heard of her again. 

She had never hurt herself or anybody else. Yes, she did not behave according to the norm. But swearing and shouting uncontrollably from time to time, or to have two pet rats does not warrant to lock someone up, who has managed quite well to hold a job, do her work properly, and take care of herself well in general.

Later in life, I had a very good friend, whose husband, after a few years of marriage, wanted her to agree to a ménage a trois. She just could not bring herself to live like that and sank into a deep depression. After a few months she was admitted to a mental hospital, stayed almost a year there, left the hospital, had to take medication for many more months, went weekly for therapy, and after almost three years was off of meds and had made a full recovery.

In Malaysia, in one of the NGOs I worked, there was a woman whose husband had taken a second wife. She completely ‘lost it’, began behaving ‘crazy’, walking around her apartment block naked, and displayed other behavior which is not acceptable to society. She was put under heavy medication, to the point that she only could speak and move in slow motion, and needed to be taken care of like a baby.

One of my husband’s childhood friends was suffering from schizophrenia. He burned down a surau because voices had whispered to him to do that. He was many months in Tanjung Rambutan, the mental hospital in Perak, Malaysia. He told people that he was the illegitimate child of Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir, the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister of Israel. He was ‘normal’ when he took his meds, but sometimes he refused to take his meds, and then he would get violent. He lived in the house of his mother – his father and sister had died in a car accident many years ago, and his brother was a drug addict and had also died. One day, when he was violent, his mother called the authorities and two men from the mental hospital came to take him back to Tanjung Rambutan. He fought them. They broke both of his forearms. The broken bones never grew together properly and his forearms remained crooked and gave him a lot of pain.

He was married and had two children. He died a number of years ago.

There are a number of other friends and colleagues who struggle with mental problems. Especially among the refugee community with whom I have close contact many suffer from mild to severe depression, trauma and PTSD.

So, what do we do with these people? Lock them all up because they make us feel ‘uncomfortable’, because we don’t know how to deal with them?

There are so many forms of mental stress and illness. Some are temporary and can be healed completely. Some are serious and need heavy medication. Maybe some need to be locked up to save them from themselves and to make sure that they do not hurt others. 

So how should we react when one of our friends or colleagues or neighbours is diagnosed with mental stress and/or illness and needs treatment?

First of all: Nobody chooses to ‘do this on purpose’!

Second of all: It could happen to anybody, including ourselves, that fate gives us a such a heavy blow that can unbalance our mind. 

Third of all: Many who suffer from mental stress and illness hide their illness because they are afraid of being labeled ‘crazy’ and become 'outcasts' of society.

And last of all: Be kind and compassionate. Most of the time mental stress and illness like so many other physical illnesses can be healed and/or treated. These people are still our friends, colleagues, fellow human beings. When they are not well for whatever reason they need us most! When anybody is down on the ground we should not trample them further into the ground, instead offer a hand to help them up!

I know that there are companies who have a policy of 100% of their staff having to perform 100% at all times. I guess this is part of profit-maximizing, meritocratic policy prevalent in capitalist systems. The company will have informed staff of this their policy from the start of employment, so that all staff members are aware when signing up that they will lose their job if and when they cannot perform at 100% due to any adverse circumstance.

However, I also believe that a better policy of any company would be that there is some provision made for staff who – also for whatever reason – is not able to perform 100%. I believe that this is part of our social conscience, our humanity, the understanding that human beings are not robots and may temporarily be unable to perform at 100%. Employers have the duty to show understanding and compassion towards their staff. Should the situation become untenable then a mutually agreeable solution should be found.

So, why do I tell you about the people mentioned above? Because I have come across a number of instances recently where people have been fired from their job for being temporarily not able to fulfill their workload as expected by their employers. This also includes organizations which have Human Rights Causes written BIG on their banners. This is hard to understand and accept. These organizations can promote Human Rights for other, far-away causes, but not for the people right there in their own place? 

Remember: This can happen to any of us. So please, treat others as you would like to be treated.