Proteínas HMGB. HMGB2. COMMD1 y MIEM1

Participants were asked what type of support they had been offered to go back into employment full-time or part-time. They were also asked what type of arrangements they thought should be put in place to enable individuals to go back to work. The researcher also sought to identify what type of support individuals were in receipt of where they were currently employed. These questions were looking at identifying what it is that would make employment possible from a service user’s perspective.

Ed indicated that if employment of individuals in mental health recovery was to be facilitated that employers would benefit from:

“training in the area”

132 “training into a trade or something”,

Training and up-skilling individuals who have mental illness were identified as facilitating employment by a participant in focus group five. Talking about the support she has had from the day centre Julie said:

“They used to do something like that, courses in English, art stuff like that, computer course as well, yeah it did help me yeah”.

Supporting the idea that employers need to be more aware of mental illness and how to support an employee Kevin said:

“I think it has to start with education, I think employers have to made more aware of mental illness, I think that’s the starting point. Obviously then when people have mental health issues then I think it should be easier for them. Cause I was talking about different situation erm how initially they were very, very supportive and helpful so people should have you know the opportunities to actually access services, I think that are important”.

This service user felt that training for employers in mental illness should be compulsory and that this would improve the prospects of individuals reengage meaningful employment.

Tony said:

“What would help first of all is if employees, employers were forced to be trained to understand the sign of mental illness”.

Participants felt that employment could be made more possible if the individual with mental illness was given one to one support. Ian thought that this would facilitate employment.

“Ahh for the person who’s got the mental illness to have a shadow”.

Views expressed indicated that just a little extra help could make all the difference. Tony captures his image of that:

“You might have like thirty people in a shop floor all working around each other and you've got one person in the middle that may need a little bit of extra help”.

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Stanley a participant from focus group five busied himself with art using the web but avoided engaging with people. In terms of re-entering the employment market he thought that:

“It would be quite helpful if there was more support you know if you are going into sort of making the first step contact”.

Stanley went onto expand on why he felt that was important:

“Hmm for me I supposed I would like help from the authority to help some of my art work, just initially, initial help that making contact in other companies, a stepping stone, hmm yeah that would be quite useful because you get out of contact”.

So there is a feeling of being out of touch not knowing the pathway back when you have a diagnosis of mental illness. Participants mainly suggested that they would like support to re-enter the labour market. Jack said that

“….I wouldn’t mind some help or even office work or something simple stuff”. However there was also a cautionary note about levels of support that were considered appropriate. Individuals with mental illness would like to have appropriate levels of support when in the employment arena but this should not be over supplied. Otherwise the person can feel just as devalued and stripped of self- confidence. This participant Chris said that:

“It’s weird because at the end of the day you don’t really want to be supported all the time because you know what it’s like, it is treating you like a child you want rather to be treated as an adult”.

Gerard another participant also said of too much supports that:

“At the time then that means that when you get back out (referring to out of hospital) then you don’t know what you going to do, because you going to think ok there’s no support worker there. There’s no, there’s no social worker that’s like, so how am I going to live, how am I going to cope, how am I going to pay the rent ? How am I going to look after the kids, so how am I going to look after a wife? You know what I mean you don’t, you, you don’t get it that what you need to do is that umm you have to be self-assured in yourself to know what the thing is that you need to cover”.

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So support is identified as being helpful to facilitating employment but it needs to be tailored and not encourage over dependency. It should be enabling and empowering in style.

Gary thought that you had a better chance of securing employment with an employer if:

“Probably if he suffered himself from mental health at some point”.

Sonya, a female participant found that where her employer was a considerate person that this facilitated employment. Sonya said:

“If you’ve got some good ones who listen to your problems”.

Support was repeatedly cited as being helpful in accessing employment or in re- entering the employment market. In focus group six we had one participant working in a childcare setting. When asked what made that possible for her she stated that in the first instance she was encouraged by those around her .Lucy said:

“I do get prompted by some people, my parents and family carers and stuff just to basically go out and do something just get yourself active”.

She also identified training in health and safety as facilitating her employment. “Because we are doing the health and safety when I worked there I’ve had to look after the kids and keep them safe keep them away from sharp objects and other things”.