Make hearts lighter and days easier

Guest contributor Jane Goodfellow shares insights into the UofG Severe Mental Illness Project—a transformative initiative aiming to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding severe mental illnesses at the University of Glasgow. Jane looks ahead as she discusses the next steps of the project, which seek to create an inclusive and understanding culture for individuals affected by severe mental illnesses.

In May 2018, the then Institute of Health and Wellbeing (now the School of Health and Wellbeing) delivered a half-day event aimed at raising awareness of the impact of invisible disabilities (including long-standing mental health conditions) on staff and students within UofG. The centrepiece was a series of first-hand accounts – searingly honest and impossible to forget – of the experience of living and working with unseen conditions. Our speakers told of facing each day, their colleagues, and their tasks and responsibilities while managing a range of distressing, disabling, often embarrassing symptoms. Some, through shame and through fear of the consequences of disclosure, had also made strenuous efforts to conceal their conditions from all but the most trusted of the people they worked or studied alongside.

Moved by these testimonies and encouraged by the significant interest this event attracted, SHW has since made a commitment to an ongoing invisible disabilities awareness-raising campaign. As someone with my own unseen conditions, I have the absolute privilege of taking a lead role in this work. (This is something I could only have dreamed of back in the 1990s when I first took up post in UofG and during the many subsequent years of hiding my illnesses and masking my symptoms.)

In this capacity, in March 2021, I began chatting to Lydia Bach, then Work-life balance coordinator, now EDI officer. We found we shared the aspiration to create an inclusive, respectful, understanding and supportive culture for all who work and study here. And, in the months that followed, the idea for our severe mental illness project started to form.

In recent years, the way that some mental health conditions are talked about, regarded and understood has changed beyond all recognition. Under the Equality Act of 2010 we also have protection in law, should we feel discriminated against or be subjected to oppressive behaviour because of our illnesses. And, here in UofG, as of mid-2022, we have our reasonable adjustment passports to help ensure we can be as productive and well as possible, as we go about our work or studies.

But for those of us affected by severe mental illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, personality disorders, PTSD, eating disorders, severe anxiety disorders, major depression, or other psychological issues that severely impair daily living) the shame and fear may persist. We may:

  • feel difficult and demanding;
  • worry about being perceived as unreliable or unstable, awkward or alarming to be around, a liability or a burden;
  • worry that such stereotyping could disadvantage us in our current role or future career;
  • put significant emotional energy into hiding our condition or the extent of our symptoms;
  • avoid asking for the adjustments that are now our legal entitlement so as not to be an inconvenience, through embarrassment, or to prove our “capability” to any who doubt us.

In short, we may suffer more than we need to because our illnesses still tend to be poorly understood and unfairly stigmatised.

Lydia and I, and the growing number of colleagues who have joined us in this work, would like to start changing things for the better. Our aim is to open minds to the nature and impact of SMIs and to reduce stigma and discrimination in the UofG community. And we would like to help affected staff and students feel secure enough to disclose their conditions, and to request the adjustments that would make working or studying here feel more comfortable.

Our first step has been to set up an MS Team where we can talk through ideas and share perspectives. Anyone with an interest in this important topic, either personal or professional, is welcome to join our group and contribute in whatever ways feel possible.

Currently in the pipeline is:

  • A survey to try to establish how many in our community identify as having an SMI, with all responses submitted anonymously.
  • A briefing paper for senior UofG colleagues, outlining the issues as we perceive them and how the institution, managers, teams and individuals could potentially help to make this a safe and enabling environment for people with SMIs.

Longer term, an awareness-raising event is anticipated.

Everything we do will be informed by the perspective of colleagues who know the reality of living and working/studying with a severe mental illness and have a profound sense of what might help. Guided by the testimony of these “experts by experience”, we hope, eventually, to make hearts a little lighter and days a little easier for those among us who are affected by SMIs. Please support us if you can. Complete our survey. Attend our event and bring along a workmate. Take steps to increase your understanding of some of the more severe mental health conditions and share your learning with others. Speak out against common stereotypes and widely held assumptions. It will all make a difference.

If you would like to get involved in the UofG severe mental illness project, you will be warmly welcomed into our MS Team. You may also chat to Lydia or myself by email, on zoom, or via whichever platform is most comfortable for you.

Useful links

Jane Goodfellow
Dissemination and Information Officer
School of Health and Wellbeing

May 2023

 



First published: 24 May 2023

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