#BellLetsTalk day sounds like a great initiative to start a conversation, but it may not be for everybody. Stigma may be socially unacceptable, although legal, but then again so is tobacco use, but 17% of Canadians continue to legally smoke, despite social pressures to the contrary.
The stigma against those with mental wellness issues is more profound in those who are middle aged – the generation of Canadians who are in middle and senior management, those who make decisions about hiring, retention, promotion, and dismissal policies for organizations large and small.
Consider that corporate memories are long because everything gets written down. Disclose an issue with mental wellness, you get a pat on the shoulder with a ‘…we’re here for you…’ and a note goes in your personnel file. The next time there is a promotion opportunity or corporate downsizing, see how fast action is taken to the detriment of the stressed, depressed, or anxious, employee as stigma raises its ugly little head.
It matters not of it is the same week, or years later, the mental wellness issue will still be written down and accessible to generations of Human Resource Managers for their criteria consideration.
Thanks to #BellLetsTalk there may be a few more people talking about mental wellness, and certainly it will give a financial shot in the arm to the CMHA, however, the chances of altering deep-set, decades aged thought processes that mental illness = ‘crazy’, 'Funny Farm Fodder’, ‘bag of nuts’, or worse, in less than two generations (40+ years) is unreasonable to expect.
Returning to my original analogy; it has been 53 years since the 1964 landmark report, released by US Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry, linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease, yet people continue intentionally inhale carcinogens found in smoldering tobacco. Will it take just as long to reduce the stigma of mental wellness issues?
