Mental Health History – What If I Have Had Mental Health Problems Myself

You feel more confused than ever in the grocery aisle and lost about what really is really healthy and what’s not, right? Do you ever feel like it’s not safe to eat anything, with all the information we now have about the food we eat available to us. Everyone I have encountered in clinical areas, especially other trainees, was supportive when I have spoken about my own MH stuff, and many have shared similar stories, all of them getting through occupational health.

It’s not all bad and it does make me wonder what it will take for them to actually prevent someone from taking up a position.

I was only just off antidepressants when I cleared occupational health for my assistant’s post. Nevertheless, rather than the other way round, do remember that occupational health checks are only done as soon as you are offered a position/training place, and Surely it’s up to them to prove that you are not fit to work. Did you know that the code of conduct we all work by is that we work on a need to know basis -the detail of anything you discuss with your counsellor remains confidential between you and s/he unless you are in significant danger of harming yourself or others, even if your employer knows or were to contact the person you have seen for herapy.

In a professional position, determined by your theoretical orientation, it may not be appropriate to share your personal history.

I do draw considerably on my own experience in my therapy though, and prefer to use ‘I had a client who.’ which seems just as good, and perhaps use self disclosure on other problems.

I will only share my own history of mental health stuff with a client if I felt it should benefit the therapy significantly, and I have never been sufficiently persuaded that it will. And here’s my own choice, To be honest I choose to be more open in supervision. I believe that it should put your motivation for working with the client group you empathise with under greater scrutiny, and there would need greater supervision to ensure that you remained professional and objective.

Regarding the whether there’s a bias against people with a history of mental health problems in our profession, By the way I would say that most people are quite ‘openminded’.

Meaningful activity, that includes school, volunteer work, temporary work and full scale employment, furthermore enables you to meet new people and make friends.

Working at something that is meaningful to you can bring you a feeling of purpose that will anchor you, even though you will encounter roadblocks and setbacks on the road to recovery. Meaningful activity expands your anticipation of ‘self worth’ by adding to your skills and helping you accomplish your personal goals and feel good about yourself.

I’d say in case you need to discuss this post, we seek for to keep our information as relevant and ‘uptodate’ as possible, or have any additions or improvements in mind, we encourage you to post a new thread about it in the forum. Fact, I’m thinking there my be a question on a OH form that will require a ‘yes’ response from you, quite a few forms get away with having you disclose everything that’s ever happened to you by asking ‘have you ever.’ questions about very general matters, and asking if it has ever had medical/professional attention.

Or to lie, and risk them finding out -the consequences of which must be severe, Your alternatives are to say ‘yes’ and go through the checks.

Honesty is key in applications, partly in order that the employer is able to judge the real you, and partly as you can be fired if you turn out to have lied anywhere in your application process.

They do highlight the need to be vigilant and ensure that the full information is taken into account when assessing who is suitable for certain jobs, now I appreciate that we are looking at cases that in no way reflect plenty of mental health problems. With an awareness of the problems that this might raise, in answer to the question must I mention my history of mental health problems in my application I will recommend honesty. Do you know an answer to a following question. When do I mention my MH history?

At application, interview or in post? When all that is out of the way, as with all medical matters, it’s your choice what to reveal to your supervisor, your course and your colleagues. I’m sure that the GP will be sympathetic, especially since a bunch of us going into these kind of jobs have ‘been there’ in the past, if it’s obvious that you’ve recovered. Assuming you decide to be honest, what happens now depends on whether you are currently free of depression, or whether it’s still biting. Consider the effect that working around unwell people may have on you at the current time, if it’s still biting. Have you heard about something like this before? It may well be worth going for a chat with the GP, and agreeing with them how they will respond to an occupational health request.

It’s likely that Occupational Health will ask to see you, if you’re well. My experience of occupational health is that they are honest and will do anything they can to give you clearance. Will past MH problems be a barrier to gaining psychological posts? For instance, what about disclosing your favorite MH problems or history to clients? I did this with mine, who was wonderful. You might consider having a chat with your GP beforehand, and sounding them out as to what they should say/not say. You therefore need to show that it’s not the case. Known you also need to be willing to talk about these problems in the interview if you mention them. You’d better think about it carefully as a psychologist and put on the form what you have gained professionally, I reckon it can be a stength. With that said, I think the key point there’s showing that you are able to reflect on the experiences you have had, and use them to add to your professional knowledge rather than over identifying with clients or carers.

Basically the risk is that you might be seen as wanting to gain something personal from your professional role or that you could not be detatched enough to see client’s problems objectively.

I believe So there’s some clause about being liable for dismissal if they find that you’ve omitted or lied about something on the form.

With regard to severity, you are required to provide more information in the box, duration and treatment. So, from a member’s personal experienceOccupational health checks require the completion of a form, that asks questions in the form ‘have you ever had.’ and one of these is something like ‘mental health problems, that may or may not was treated’. Known anecdotally, however, I’ve found that many have gone through a very similar time. That’s my experience, and may not represent that of others.

What if my mental health or MH history is impacting on my work?

Whereas plenty of them are sympathetic if you reply honestly, and you’re not there’s with occupational health would have to be quite major, for them to retract the offer at this stage. You often have to consent to them contacting your GP, and whilst you are free to lie or omit information, you run the risk of the employer finding out, and refusing to employ you. While pending satisfactory references, these usually appear right after you been for interview, and are offered the job. I know that the forms invariably ask about mental health problems, and whether you have attended for treatment of these.

My experience of it’s that if you apply to be anything in the health service, they require you to fill out occupational health questionnaires.

I’m not convinced the way through it’s to lie -that’s amongst the things I don’t do as a psychologist, albeit I the entire of my time with the NHS looking over my shoulder either. Day we understand that work isn’t only a possibility, but it can also play a vital role in recovery, in the past, people with mental illness were often discouraged from working.

Some individuals with mental health conditions find that they are able, to work in very similar way they did before. They also face varied challenges in relation to work, as people recover from a mental health condition. Others may have to re enter work gradually. Anyways, having a mental health condition can be an obstacle, we all need some type of meaningful activity in our lives and a means of supporting ourselves. Remember, people on disability benefits will need to observe backtowork rules when employed. Certainly, others find that their condition interrupts their career, and still others might be able to do only limited work, Some people with mental health conditions may never stop working. There’re good reasons for people having to disclose all important facts of their history when applying for posts that have access to vulnerable client groups, as ours does. You see the rare extreme cases which make the vetting process important, I’d say in case you think about the tragedies of Beverley Allitt and more recently the history of Ian Huntley.

I actually have never heard of anyone being ‘required’ to disclose this -as Surely it’s not a medical matter -although it must be highly relevant in supervision, with regard to countertransference problems, with regard to abuse.

I guess So there’s a chance though, that if it’s in your medical notes, it might end up reported somewhere.

It would depend how it manifests these days. Will generally defer to your GP’s/psychiatrist’s assessment of your fitness, the Occ Health nurses and doctors. Will often have very little experience of psychiatry. So nurse will ask blunt questions about your MH history, and will therefore need to ask the doctor what to do. I am sure that the doctor will decide whether she still needs to assess you, and say yes or no to your application as to whether you are fit for work, when received. With all that said… I know that the doctor will request your consent for him to contact your GP for a report. You should take this seriously. While telling you that most of the information you provided means that you will have to speak to the occupational health nurse, on the telephone, when they receive this, you might be sent a letter.

Thus far, To be honest I have always found this to be unpleasant.

It makes supervision and appraisal a lot more authentic, means people generally keep their eye out for me, and as I won’t be going through occupational health again until I qualify and take my first qualified post, there’s no threat from that side either.

For me, the stuff that was on my medical records was definitely more ‘worrying’ than private counselling, it felt more appropriate to disclose the lot. Further, right after I got on to training, it felt a lot easier to speak with colleagues and supervisors about this stuff. I’d encourage you to admit to any significant mental health problems wherever you got them treated, some individuals need to disclose as little as possible. Mostly there’s some discretion about whether you disclose private counselling that was not on your GP record. Did you hear about something like that before? Having said all this, I’m wondering what they do with all this information in people who are currently asymptomatic.

I can’t imagine how one should determine how an individual with mental health history have quite a few chances to lerate working in mental health.

Having the awareness and guts to go to therapy though, and persist with your degree and career, are strengths to be proud of.

I think professionals are sometimes more accepting of problems than your family! Then, it ok months before I could tell my family that I was on antidepressants, and didn’t get much benefit from that. Needless to say, I think that usually terms, mental health problems shan’t be seen as a major problem to employers are able to reflect on these difficulties and how they impact upon your current life and potential professional role. Clinical psychology is a very diverse profession, and I reckon that you should also be seen as overly narrow if you only had an interest in working with the one client group you yourself had belonged to.