Employability With Mental Illness: The Perspectives of Employers and Mental Health Workers

Abstract

Having prior contact with people with mental illness in the workplace can lead to an improvement in employers’ attitudes toward this group. However, there is currently a lack of instruments to measure attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness. The overall aim of this study was to develop a Spanish scale of attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness (CEPEM) and obtain preliminary data regarding its psychometric properties. Ninety-four items from three content domains were selected (attitudes, employability, and impact) and revised in an inter-rater agreement procedure in order to produce an initial scale. The scale was tested by employers and workers from the field of mental health. A reduced set of items was selected according to variability and homogeneity indexes. Additional analyses were conducted to explore the validity of the scale. Internal consistency was estimated for the full 33-item scale. Scale scores partially captured attitudinal differences between employers and workers. Finally, linear multiple regression analysis showed that the scale score, in combination with educational level, can help to predict employers’ intentions to hire people with mental illness. Limitations and future research directions are also addressed.

Employment related barriers and facilitators for people with psychiatric disabilities in Spain

“…Although interviewees did identify bad relationships at work as another important barrier, they never actually explained them as work discrimination for being treated unfairly in the workplace because of having a psychiatric disability. However, labor force discrimination of people with mental illness is a barrier that has been reviewed for several years [6,[37][38][39] and some recent studies have shown that experiences of discrimination at work limit the improvement of selfesteem for people with mental illness [40]. Moreover we have to consider that negative work experiences facilitate negative expectations regarding future work opportunities, and that people could easily decide stay out of the work market because they anticipate work discrimination [20,24].…”

Are informal female workers better? Determinants of job stress on physical symptoms with risk-taking mental health stigma: a convergent-parallel approach

“…Some scholars suggested that job stress associated with mental health stigma have focused on global levels (DeVries and Wilkerson, 2003), formal economy (Elraz, 2018) and among informal men workers (Dozier, 2017). Some studies demonstrated mental health stigma (Fox et al , 2018; Lettieri et al , 2021) as a broad understanding of individual practices across the field.…”

The attitudes of mental health professionals on the employability of people with mental illness: A different view limiting employment rehabilitation

“…For this study, we used an instrument recently developed in Spain to measure the attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness (CEPEM: Questionnaire about the employability of people with mental disorders). This scale was previously used with employers and mental health professionals (Lettieri, Soto‐Pérez, et al., 2021 ), providing the first explorative results and showing acceptable psychometric properties. The last version of the scale, after being checked for internal consistency, provided 33 items distributed into the content spheres of attitudes toward (1) people with mental illness, (2) their employability, and the (3) socio‐economic impact on the company.…”

“…Research on the attitudes of mental health professionals toward the employability of people with mental illness, as well as the stakeholders involved in promoting and supporting employment for these people, provide important insight for addressing this issue. Nonetheless, while there are reports that detail the points of view of employers (Hand & Tryssenaar, 2006 ; Jansson & Gunnarsson, 2018 ; Lettieri, Díez, et al., 2021 ; Mangili et al., 2011 ; Ozawa & Yaeda, 2007 ; Unger, 2002 ), there are not that many focusing on the attitudes and perceptions of mental health professionals toward the employability of people with mental illness (Fleming et al., 2019 ; Gladman et al., 2015 ; Lettieri, Soto‐Pérez, et al., 2021 ). The role of these professionals is crucial for helping people not only medically but also to help them achieve a better quality of life through the positive experience of obtaining a job and their subsequent recovery (Bertilsson et al., 2015 ; Gladman et al., 2015 ; Porter, et al., 2018 ).…”

“…By contrast, other therapists, like psychologists or social workers, seem to have more positive attitudes toward mental illness (Nordt et al., 2006 ; Olmo‐Romero et al., 2019 ). Non‐medical professional groups pertaining to non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) also show more positive attitudes when compared with other medical mental health professionals (Lettieri, Soto‐Pérez, et al., 2021 ; Rose et al., 2018 ). Despite general opinions about the importance of employment for recovering a meaningful life (Gladman et al., 2015 ), a recent study suggests that medical mental health professionals consider people with mental illness to be less capable of carrying out full‐time jobs in 23% of the cases, 45% in part‐time employment, and the rest being incapable of any type of remunerated work (Fleming et al., 2019 ).…”