Mental Illness And Unemployment Statistics

Report: Adults With Serious Mental Illnesses Face 80% Unemployment

This KHN story can be republished for free.

Employment rates for people with a serious mental illness are dismally low and getting worse, according to a report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Just 17.8 percent of people receiving public mental health services were employed in 2012 down from 23 percent in 2003.

Thats an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent.

It isnt surprising, says Sita Diehl, director of state policy at NAMI and author of the report. The problem has less to with the workers themselves, she says, and more with the organizations that provide services for people with serious mental illness. We knew that mental health services really took it on the chin during the recession. Employment rates had already been dismal to begin with, and when the supports were eroded, people with mental illness lost support and lost jobs.

Rates of unemployment for people with mental illnesses varied greatly by state from 92.6 percent in Maine to 56 percent in Wyoming.

Most adults with mental illness want to work, and six in 10 can succeed with the right supports, according to the report. Yet only 1.7 percent received supported employment services in 2012.

Without proper supports, many end up on expensive public programs including Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Income . People with mental illnesses make up the largest and fastest growing group for both programs.

Mental Health General Statistics

It is estimated that at least 792 million people had some form of mental illness in 2017 . But according to the data that number has been increasing exponentially. And we must consider mental illnesses are very diverse, just to mention some it includes depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and dementia, among others.

I Have An Eating Disorder

I dont eat unless its something easy like a granola bar, fresh fruit, or a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Most days I skip lunch, starving myself during the day because I dont have the energy or will to make food for myself. My medication also has the side effect of suppressing hunger, so often times I just forget im supposed to eat. Logan prepares dinner when Im low on spoons, which is most days. Since I havent eaten all day I binge eat my dinner. while also cutting up the entire plate of food into tiny bite size pieces, usually leaving a few bites or more left on the plate.

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Support To Move Into Work

Employment programmes such as JETS and RESTART are new schemes to help reduce unemployment, focusing on short- and long-term unemployment respectively. These programmes focus on practical skills for getting jobs, with sessions on CV writing, interview technique and signposting job opportunities. Despite the greater likelihood of poor mental health among the groups targeted by these policies, there is no explicit focus or recognition of how they affect mental health.

However, in forthcoming research, Coutts demonstrates that good quality active labour market policies contain a number of crucial elements which provide social support, reduce loneliness and get someone back into a structured routine. Key to supporting mental health is a focus on self-efficacy, and the psychological resources to cope with the stresses of unemployment. As the evidence shows, it is possible through these programmes to protect people against the mental health challenges of unemployment as well as help them into work.

Major randomised control trials in the United States and Finland show that the intensiveness of support matters. For those struggling with their mental health and detached from work for longest, these courses should last a week, for 5 hours per day, and should be offered every 2 months until an individual finds a job. The aim, in response to rising unemployment and low job creation, is to provide people with stability and support, not make their lives more of a struggle .

Paid Jobs Differ In Quality

Dooley, Prause and Ham-Rowbottom argued against simply comparing the unemployed with the employed, because paid jobs can differ greatly in quality. Poorer quality jobs are more likely to be associated with mental health problems than better quality jobs. This point implies that comparing all employment with the unemployed will underestimate the effects of losing a good job.

Dooley et al. addressed this issue by creating a category called inadequate employment. It was defined to include involuntary part-time work as well as work for very low wages. Low wages were defined with reference to the poverty threshold for single individuals in the U.S. If weekly earnings were not at least 25 per cent higher than the poverty threshold, wages were considered low. Dooley et al. defined the unemployed to include discouraged workers, but not other forms of inactivity.

The focus of their study was the link between change in employment status and depression. They drew upon data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in the U.S. Their study was based on about 5,000 respondents who were adequately employed in 1992, and who were interviewed in 1992 and 1994.

Mental health was measured in two different ways: with a six-item scale to assess mental distress or with another instrument to assess major depression. When testing the effects of causation, the researchers controlled for change in employment status, gender, age and initial mental health.

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Nami Reports 80% Unemployment For People With Serious Mental Illness

July 10, 2014 Kaiser Health News

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has just released a report called Road to Recovery: Employment and Mental Illness, and the findings are tough. People with serious mental illness have an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent.

According to NAMI, employment rates are on the decline, with 17.8 percent of people receiving public mental health services employed in 2012 as compared to 23 percent in 2003. These rates varied greatly by state, from 92.6 percent in Maine to 56 percent in Wyoming. The report found that most adults with mental illness want employment and sixty percent can succeed with support services, but a mere 1.7 percent received those services in 2012.

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The report cited a number of successful program models, but support for employment for this population tends to be spottily funded. Additionally, the report suggests that the administration of SSI and SSDI provide barriers to work because people on these benefits who obtain work may lose both their cash benefits and their health insurance.

During recessions, we see a spike in disability, says David Wittenburg, a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. Its a trend that has been made worse by a shifts in the labor market. Theres an increasing demand for high-skilled labor, and sometimes people with disabilities get left behind.

Unemployed Mentally Ill Are Not Lazy Theyre Warriors

Most of us very desperately WANT to work, but fighting for our lives everyday is a full time job in itself, and can prevent that. I wrote this article in hope that I can explain some of the reasons I and many others are unemployed.

Its upsetting when people judge me and assume I just dont try. Because thats simply not true. I have been employed since I was 13 years old. Babysitting, ice cream parlor, pet shop, retail worker, cashier, receptionist, restaurant host, server, cook. From 14 31 years old I have been either part or full time employed. In highschool I worked 2 afterschool jobs going right from school to one then the next 5-7 days a week. In college I was enrolled in 4+ classes each semester while working 2 jobs 5-7 days a week and still graduated with honors holding a Bachelors in Science with a concentration in Occupational Health & Safety, I held on to each of these jobs until I was ready to move on never getting fired.

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Employers Mental Health Responsibility

According to experts and mental health care institutions, employers have a responsibility for the mental health of their employees. How much and how well do companies help achieve this expectation? Lets see:

• A survey in 2020 showed that only 19% of the companies surveyed offered mental health care in-site.
• This was offset by 31% virtual mental health couching and 29% group counseling.

The majority of companies preferred to have employees deal with the issue individually through personal time management:

Additionally, the data show that employee assistance programs have not significantly increased in coverage since 2013.

• The share of employers offering employee assistance programs in 2013 was 77% and in 2019, 79%.

However, one of the programs with the highest coverage of health insurance is mental health.

• Approximately 83% of insurances cover these services. An achievement that could respond to workers need for these benefits.
• Since 22% of job seekers consider mental health benefits as very important to applying or accepting a job offer.

: Aflac, Society For Human Resource Management, Jobvite Report.

About The Analysis Used In This Long Read

This long read features original Health Foundation analysis of data from an online YouGov survey, which was designed and commissioned by the Resolution Foundation in partnership with the Health Foundation.

The figures included in this blog have been analysed independently by the Health Foundation and do not represent the views of YouGov or the Resolution Foundation.

The survey was conducted between 2226 January 2021, using an online interview with members of the YouGov Plc UK panel who have agreed to take part. The total sample size was 6,389 adults, aged 1865.

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Unemployment And Mental Health During The Pandemic

Rates of both unemployment and poor mental health have increased during the pandemic. Unemployment is expected to rise further throughout this year, peaking when furloughing ends. Deteriorating mental health has been partly due to the social impact of pandemic restrictions, but as our analysis has previously shown, it is also related to economic uncertainty, job loss and unemployment. With the economic consequences yet to be fully felt, a further deterioration in mental health for those bearing the brunt is likely.

Rising unemployment

The impact of the pandemic on employment has been difficult to assess, because traditional employment measures do not adequately capture pandemic activity such as the temporary shutdown of some sectors and the move to reduced hours due to the furlough scheme. Despite these initiatives, the unemployment rate rose from 3.8% in the 3 months to November 2019 to 5.0% a year later. With pandemic support schemes set to end this autumn, a further rise in unemployment is expected.

The risk of unemployment for different groups

Our independent analysis in this section largely makes use of a survey designed by the Resolution Foundation, funded by the Health Foundation, and conducted by YouGov between 2226 January 2021 . It has a sample size of 6,389 adults aged 1864. Results are weighted to be representative of the population of that age group.

Figure 1

Geographical variation in unemployment changes

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Physical Mental Health Issues Named Top Cause Of Us Unemployment

A new survey of United States workers found that 30 percent of unemployed respondents cited physical health as the cause of their joblessness, while 15 percent cited mental health issues.

One of the more baffling questions surrounding the labour market recovery in the United States is the mismatch between a near-record number of job openings and the paucity of workers willing to fill them.

A new survey published on Monday by global consultancy McKinsey and Company is shedding light on one of the major drivers keeping workers on the sidelines: health issues.

According to McKinseys latest American Opportunity Survey, nearly half of jobless workers canvassed said health issues were the main cause of their unemployment, with 30 percent saying they had to leave work because of physical health issues, and 15 percent citing mental health issues.

Both metrics marked an increase over March, when the first survey was conducted.

The third most commonly cited reason was the need to take care of children or elderly relatives, which 12 percent of respondents said best described the cause of their unemployment.

But the headline metric concealed big differences, said McKinsey.

Jobless workers with children at home were 2.4 times more likely to cite caregiving as the reason for their unemployment, while Asian Americans were three times more likely than people of other races or ethnicities to cite taking care of family for keeping them out of the jobs market.

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Demographic And Illness Characteristics Of People With Schizophrenia Or Bipolar Disorder

In the schizophrenia cohort, over half were men, whereas in the bipolar disorder cohort, over half were women . People in the general population belonged to the youngest age group more often than people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder . Of the individuals with bipolar disorder, a quarter had high education, but 16% had only basic education. The individuals with schizophrenia had lower education than the individuals with bipolar disorder or the general population. However, even 12% of the individuals with schizophrenia had high education. People in the general population were more often married or cohabiting than people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder . The number of individuals who had received bipolar disorder diagnosis in the registers increased from 13 081 in 2006 to 35 119 in 2013, whereas the number of the individuals with schizophrenia diagnosis decreased a little .

What Can Government Do To Support Good Mental Health For Those Unemployed

The government is already taking some steps that will support mental health and prevent a significant rise in unemployment, through the further extension to the furlough scheme, for example which in turn may help to keep unemployment lower until certain sectors can reopen. At the same time, the temporary extension of the £20 per week uplift to UC will provide further, if time limited, income relief to lower income families. Making this uplift permanent would be a crucial step towards providing an adequate safety net for those facing unemployment.

However, these measures are only indirectly supporting better mental health, and there will still be increasing numbers of unemployed people through this year and next, with a risk of longer term unemployment rising too. Large numbers of people have also spent considerable time not working during the pandemic, creating a risk that they are losing skills necessary to work.

To address these risks, there are two areas in which further policy change can better support mental health while tackling unemployment.

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Embed Mental Health Support Within Employment Programmes

• New employment programmes should be designed to a high standard taking into account their impact on mental health and wellbeing. Regular and intensive support that provides stability for individuals is critical.
• Providers should be accountable against outcome measures that include mental health, wellbeing and longevity and quality of work placements. This will reduce further periods of avoidable worklessness and ensure that the work found is not detrimental to peoples mental health.
• Addressing skill gaps for lower skilled workers will help them find better quality work. Similarly, allowing flexible working and upskilling employees may promote sustainable employment. This could be achieved through a quality guarantee being built into employment programmes and a greater focus on in-work progression.
• Individual Placement and Support services could be fully integrated into UK employability provision. This would provide greater access to specialised intensive support for people with poor mental health and help improve employment outcomes for this group.

Mental Health Employment Statistics

• Women are more impacted: In a study of over 70,000 women, 25% reported having a mental illness in 2019.
• Mental illnesses are the second most treated: 15% of workers with employer health insurance are treated for a chronic mental illness. .
• Depression is the most concerning: people diagnosed with this mental illness account for 80% of suicide cases in the US.
• Restaurants: the most stressful workplaces: from a survey of more than 1500 respondents, 54% of them said, restaurants are the most stressful workplaces.
• Suicide rates are higher in the mining sector: per 100000 population, 54.2 cases of death suicides are in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industries.
• Young adults are the most affected by burnout: Young adults have more negative feelings and emotional burnout in their jobs, with high percentage differences compared to other age groups.

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Tomorrow Is A New Day

I wont stop trying to do what I can when im able. Trust me I wish I could work full time again and go back to my life before becoming unemployed. But when my doctors are telling me I have to choose between my job and my mental health Ill choose my health every time. After almost 2 years of recovery I know now what I need to succeed in my chosen profession, but unfortunately the U.S is decades behind understanding how to make accommodations in the workforce for the mentally ill.

So the next time you hear that someone is unemployed and hasnt worked for awhile please dont be so quick to judge them. Help us break the stigma of what unemployment means. It doesnt mean someone is lazy or just doesnt want to work . Because there is a great possibility they simply cant, not wont.

I hope you enjoyed this article and it providing you with an awareness about how having a mental illness may affect jobs & unemployment. Drop a comment below and share your thoughts with me and other readers!