| Work plays an important role for a person recovering | | | | professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School, "Not |
| from a mental illness. The workplace provides a social | | | | only are friends and family members very capable of |
| support system and the opportunity for people to | | | | handling these crises that come along, but every once |
| regain their sense of self-esteem, control and | | | | in a while, you run into someone who has a great |
| self-worth. | | | | understanding of human nature." Although most people |
| Although in some more severe instances a return to | | | | may not be experienced with mental illness, says Dr. |
| work is not possible, once on the path to recovery, | | | | Gorney, "They have had decades of experience trying |
| many individuals can benefit tremendously from | | | | to figure out people's minds. Never undersell your own |
| working again. A supportive workplace can offer a | | | | intuition and never ignore your own experience," he |
| sense of stability that is otherwise hard to find. | | | | advises. |
| The reintegration of an employee into the workplace | | | | Before you can help the situation, it helps to have a |
| after recovery again requires the employer's flexibility. | | | | diagnosis. "In mental health," Dr. Gorney says, "the |
| Often the process has to be gradual. The workload | | | | average person doesn't realize that there are very |
| may have to change temporarily and hours and days | | | | specific diagnoses for feeling terrible emotionally." What |
| worked may have to be altered. Job sharing and | | | | you do about your condition, or someone else's, |
| people working with an emergency fill-in person are | | | | depends on the diagnosis. "A generalized anxiety state |
| considerations depending on the individual's and | | | | could have a medical basis, a stress basis, or could be |
| employer's needs. | | | | a result of a conflict that the individual is placed in by |
| The benefits of understanding | | | | someone else," Dr. Gorney explains. |
| The benefits to the employer of accommodating the | | | | While traumatic life changes, such as loss of a |
| return of an employee are many. They avoid the | | | | spouse, parent, job or health often trigger emotional |
| added costs of hiring a new employee, and training | | | | emergencies, physical illnesses may also precipitate |
| and raising him or her to d level of productivity | | | | them, says Dr. Gorney. "Certain sudden anxiety |
| comparable to that of an experienced worker. Overall | | | | experiences may be due to physical causes, such as |
| morale will rise as employees see the care placed on | | | | the rare adrenal tumor," he says. In the case of sudden |
| the individual, and coworkers share in the challenges | | | | manic psychosis, such as when someone with a very |
| faced by the returning staff member. | | | | high fever is deluded and is physically combative, they |
| Employers and employees alike will always benefit | | | | may need acute medical care to save them from a |
| from breaking down the stigma attached to mental | | | | fatality. Dr. Gorney advises restraining the individual and |
| illness in the workplace. Removing the barriers to | | | | calling 911 for paramedics in these cases. Individuals |
| education, open discussion, flexibility and acceptance | | | | who become suicidal or show signs of acute onset |
| will ultimately allow those needing medical attention and | | | | depressive psychosis must also be restrained while |
| social support to seek help and receive it. | | | | someone calls 911 for help. |
| Everyone knows when to go to the hospital in a | | | | In less dramatic emotional emergencies, such as when |
| physical emergency, but what are the warning signs of | | | | people experience modest depression or anxiety and |
| emotional emergencies? When and how do we get | | | | or start exhibiting changes in diet, weight, sleep, job |
| help for these urgent conditions? Most of us fear and | | | | attendance, mood and behavior, individuals can seek a |
| or dread mental illness, so it's hardly surprising that | | | | psychiatric referral from a primary care provider. "If |
| emotional emergency is a widely taboo topic. This | | | | you're not getting referred," Dr. Gorney says, "you |
| accounts for why many of us lack the insight and | | | | have to push on it. Speak with your care manager in |
| resources to deal with urgent emotional situations in | | | | the HMO or insurance person who can authorize that |
| our own lives, or in the lives of our friends and families. | | | | kind of a consultation." |
| It benefits all of us, however, to understand how we | | | | Many health insurance plans fail to cover psychiatric |
| can respond to these events, which can be just as | | | | referrals and some people lack insurance altogether, |
| life-threatening as severe accidents or physical | | | | but low-cost resources can be located via your local |
| illnesses. According to Roderic Gorney, M.D., a Los | | | | or state psychiatric society. |
| Angeles, Calif. psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and | | | | |