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health advisory Hospital Mental Health 2007-11-15 18:59:36

she is so afraid to get know by others about her illness, but actually hardly anyone knows. She's also worried that employers would not hire her because of her illness. Now she has totally recovered, I told her not to worry as nobody would ever know and even they do, I don't believe she'll face discrimination. And I assume employers would only look at a persons work ability and performance. Am I right??

Answer:

Absolutely. It is illegal to discriminate against people with a mental handicap. Which means if she is perfectly capable of performing her job duties, it is 100% illegal to deny her a job based on her non-interfering mental condition. In fact, it's a very serious crime with huge penalties.

It sounds like your niece has more of a confidence and self-image issue than a real disability. There are probably classes or therapy sessions that will help her improve her self image, and they would probably do her a lot of good. Good luck.

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If it wont effect her work- I wouldnt mention it to employers either- it is none of their business. And there are discrimination laws that protect her at work in case people do find out and worst case scenario- she looses her job. So many people in this world suffer from mental illness and dont even know it. And they do fine at work. People in this world are so unpredictable anyway- what might be symptons of mental illness to one person will be considered normal behavior to the next person. So dont worry! Tell her dont even volunteer that information to her employers. They only should be looking at past experience and work ability anyway