After an accident I was disabled for five years. During this time I received Social Security Disability Income and counseling. I joined a club house in Newton Massachusetts for vocational counseling. After volunteering there I got a temporary employment placement. I did janitorial work on two days each week for two hour shifts at some group homes. On one night each week I attended a vocational support group to discuss issues related to the job. After this I found a part time telemarketing job. This independent employment was a step in the right direction. I had an excellent college education but had difficulty getting hired. This may have been because I had a disability. Employers are careful in hiring and this can exclude applicants who can do the job but have been disabled and unemployed. I was grateful that a program was available in my community to help disabled people get jobs. Being excluded from work creates a unique poverty of the soul. I vowed that someday I would help disabled people with finding jobs.
A year and six months into my recovery I got a residential counselor job working with individuals called mentally retarded. Working for an organization with a mission to serve the disabled was a situation I liked. I slept overnight two nights and worked some regular shifts. This was an excellent situation for someone with depression. I got off public assistance and was a self supporting, productive and responsible member of society. After you worked for a year at this job you became eligible for tuition reimbursement. I took advantage of this and took a course at the University of Massachusetts in the Rehabilitation Counseling program. After taking one course a semester for three semesters I was accepted into the program. I enjoyed working as a residential counselor at the group home. Two different program directors gave me good performance reviews. I found a better job where you were awake for all your shifts. I moved into a therapeutic community where I worked as a counselor. Working in a supportive environment and going to graduate school helped me grow as a person. I was able to nurture the growth of the clients I worked with. I enjoyed working with the program director and liked the folks I worked with. We had regular community meetings where the residents and staff shared responsibility. During team meetings all the staff was treated as equal. We had both paid and volunteer staff. I lived in the community and worked as counselor for five years. After I earned a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling I got certified as a rehabilitation counselor or a (CRC).
Then I took a job with a Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) in central Massachusetts. I was able to advocate for clients and help them with a lot of problems. I liked the fact that we did outreach and helped clients where ever they were. This type of work brought me to homeless shelters, schools, work places, hospitals, jails and client’s homes. The psychiatrist and staff were supportive. The program was associated with a University and teaching and learning were emphasized. I handled numerous crisis situations effectively. I helped clients to find jobs and housing. Some clients just wanted weekly counseling. I received good performance reviews over through-out my time working there. The psychiatrist, program director, nurse and other counselors endorsed me as a candidate as a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC). I worked with this company for four years. Before ending this position I took the time required to discuss ending counseling with clients. On my last week the staff took me out for lunch.
I was offered a better paying position at another PACT. I had twelve years experience and not one complaint on my record. I moved near Malden to work as a Vocational Counselor with a PACT at Tri-City Mental Health Center (TCMHC). The company was merging with Eliot Community Mental Health (ECMH). This was because the board of directors could not see that management acted in an ethical manner. The company had committed fraud in billing. The director of rehabilitation stole money from clients. I understood that the company was in transition. I was confident in my ability to help clients. I have a good work ethic and thought that would be enough to succeed. I was told before taking the position I would get help with gaining my LMHC. I also was promised three weeks vacation. Having a disability did not seem to be an issue with doing this job. This issue was never a big problem with other employers because they were accommodating to people with different abilities. I had the experience of being on an effectively operated PACT. This experience was valuable to this PACT because the program did not have a solid team that could work together. Continuous staff turnover left clients feeling uncertain about there treatment.
After I started working Aaron Katz a new program director took control of the program. He did not have the required credentials or experience to manage the program. Because of his lack of credentials counselors could not be supervised professionally. The clients did not get counseling when they wanted it. I saw clients were not the support they needed with issues such as housing and employment. Clients needed staff who understand there problems. Some staff would say that clients were to “symptomatic” to benefit from help. Some clients were treated in a condescending manner.
I raised my concerns about client treatment with the new program director. PACT programs are designed to serve the most disabled and vulnerable mental health consumers. The response I got from the program director was “mind your own place and business”. Aaron Katz would blame subordinates for his mistakes. His approach to management was to bully subordinates, use intimidation and push people around. For example he and another manager would “co supervise” a counselor. During counselor ’supervision’ a manager sat at a computer taking notes as if it were a disposition while the program director questioned the counselor. You never knew what was being written. I asked if I could take notes during meetings but was told this was not allowed.
In my first month of employment I was asked to take a client to get a toxicology screen. The test results could get the client in legal trouble. I thought that this task was a bad idea for our first meeting. I found out latter this client had been through court for attempted murder. I was never told about his background before being asked to take him to get tested. I refused to do this. This is just one example of a number of problems where clients and staff were put at odds because of poor management. Once I got reprimanded because a client asked questions about the medication I delivered. The orders I got were to make sure that the client took the pills and swallowed them. (Reports to DMH were written to distort what was going on.) Some clients were under court order to take medication and some clients had the program manage their money. Clients could be sent to the hospital against there will.
This “assertive” aspect of the program creates a situation where the mental health program has the power to exploit clients. The only way to be sure clients are not coerced and staff is acting ethically is for there to be effective communication between all parties involved. However, this was not possible at the ECHS PACT. All communication was one way. The program director gave orders and expected staff to obey his orders without question. It was as if the clients weren’t people but animals to be feed anti-psychotic medications. The program director would say “I have to micromanage everything”. When a team meeting was going on counselors were expected to raise there hand and ask for permission to go to the bathroom. We were in team meetings ten hours a week.
I advocated for clients in meetings and management felt threatened. I got a “you aren’t fitting in” talk from the program director. Then I got a written warning that threatened termination. This was for late paper work. Some of the paper work was the program directors responsibility. I explained that I had dyslexia and I asked for some extra time to complete the paper works. I advocated for my self and asked for the accommodations that I am entitled to under the American’s with Disabilities Act. Other than this minor issue I had demonstrated leadership in important matters. I helped client’s find jobs and housing. I managed crisis situations. My request for more time to do paper work was denied by the program director.
Then the work environment became hostile. A client in crisis did not get help from management in a timely manner. I had brought the client in crisis to meet the manager A MacAleer. After this a blame game started. I got blamed because this client who needed to be hospitalized ended up driving in Malden. This happened after I warned the manager that he needed help. A staff person from the day program was in his car. He could have crashed his car into someone. But I was blamed for this management neglect. During a meeting with the program director and manager I asked for union representation but I was suspended me on the spot.
I filed two grievances with the SEUI union. Management ignored them. Another meeting was held where management again accused me of mishandling the situation. This was a kangaroo court with M Mathews, P Burns, A Katz, A MacAller vs. me and a union shop steward. This was stressful so I got treatment for job related stress. I let A Katz and M Mathews know I was being treated for job related stress. I requested time off but this was denied. Even though I had two emergency room visits as evidence that I had job related stress. (I never received the three weeks vacation promised before I was hired.) The work place got more hostile.
Basically I was forced out. I walked off the job three days after Thanksgiving. I had taken every reasonable step to maintain employment but my health was being affected. I advocated for clients, workers rights and would not accept unethical behavior by management. ECHS management contested my unemployment claim. At hearings M Mathews and Aaron Katz committed perjury. After four hearings the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training found I had an urgent and compelling reason for ending the job. I was paid unemployment compensation. ECHS management also refused to pay me for the last two weeks I worked. I went to small claims court and named Pam Burns the Human Resources Director in my complaint. I had an excellent case but the hearing officer was a Malden court clerk named Paul Burns. Without considering the facts I lost my case.
Because it took six month in getting unemployment compensation and I did not get paid for the last two weeks of work I fell behind on rent. I lost my health insurance. I couldn’t continue the good treatment I was getting for stress. My CRC expired while I was fighting to get unemployment compensation. I never received the help to get my LMHCM as promised. I do not have a reference from my last employer. I have not been able to find a good job. I applied for a position I qualified for. I did my internship as a graduate student with this employer and I received a good review. I had two interviews and thought I would get this job. But the company spoke with someone at ECHS. I was not offered a position. This has happened numerous times. I have applied to most of the social service organizations in the area. But no job offers have come to fruition. So in some ways I have come full circle where I am excluded from work for reasons not related to me abilities.
I had to go on food stamps and apply for Social Security Disability. ECHS management was not honest with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health about an incident that was badly managed before I left. Ethical issues were not to be discussed. The dishonesty and hostility of management’s practice made this a toxic work environment for me. Management does not treat employers with respect and violated the agreement with the union. This is not the environment that leads to compassionate treatment of clients. In the end Aaron Katz and Melinda Mathews probably get promotions and better pay. Clients are abandoned and left waiting to see who their newest counselor will be.
I have not given up helping folks. But I am not sure if I will be able to work as a counselor.
Signed,
Dog Meat

1. A full psychiatric assessment should be made by the sufferer’s treating psychiatrist and by an independent psychiatrist. Both psychiatrist’s should be experts in Bipolar or whatever else the condition might be eg schizophrenia, depression, anxiety etc.General psychiatry experience won’t be sufficient as they won’t have had the necessary breadth of experience to determine where a sufferer lies on the spectrum of the manifestation of the illness. (i.e. there are around 750,000 sufferers in the UK, some of whom are permanently hospitalised, others who lead completely normal lives).

2. These psychiatrists should then write a detailed report on how the sufferer is:

a. responding to medication
b. responding to therapy
c. able to recognise her triggers, recognise her symptoms and knows how to manage her illness.
d. compliant with the medication and therapy regime.

3. These reports should be served onto the other sides solicitors for them to make an assessment as to whether they are going to raise the issue of the bipolar in the court.

4. If they are going to raise it, then these experts have to attend court and give evidence about the sufferer’s condition.

5. These experts should sit with the judge through the entirety of the proceedings, listening to ALL the evidence on both sides of ALL the witnesses and be on hand to advise the judge throughout the proceedings. It is only by doing this that the judge will begin to be able to distinguish between what are symptoms of an illness and what is behaviour peculiar to the individual which is NOT attributable to the illness.

6. The judge should have to disclose their knowledge about the illness before they sit to hear the case. I think that only judges who have received special training in understanding the illness should be allowed to adjudicate in these cases. Otherwise, the judge is a total lay person who has no understanding or knowledge of the condition and therefore can’t properly assess the individual’s ability to handle their own condition.

7. The court system should allow solicitors to find out which judges have specialist training and/or experience in dealing with mental health cases. That way they can ask if one of these judges can hear the case instead of an untrained/inexperienced judge hearing it.

8. Judges should be bound by the anti-discrimination laws and challenged if they fall foul of them. Currently, the Disability Discrimination Act allows judges to be exempt from its provisions whilst they are acting in their judicial capacity! They should be scrutinised and held to account if they discriminate in the same way that any other person could be scrutinised. There should be no exceptions for judges.

I think all the above measures would help a great deal in reducing the potential for discrimination.

Do you have any views on the above or any other comments you would like to make?

I will put up a separate post on expert evidence in custody battles.

Marie

I too am waiting to hear back from the DVLA regarding whether or not they will renew my licence; my psychiatrist said that the usual criteria that the DVLA go through is to determine whether or not someone suffering from Bipolar has had a manic episode within the last 6 months requiring hospitalisation. If not, then they usually grant a licence. What were the grounds the DVLA used to refuse your licence? Could you PLEASE let me know as this may be evidence of a form of mental health discrimination if the DVLA haven’t accepted a doctor’s recommendations for fitness to drive.

As for work place discrimination, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens a great deal, although it is yet another area of research I wish to undertake and actually will need to look at in my own application to the court for maintenance.

There is ample anecdotal evidence of people suffering from mental health problems finding it difficult to work in a typical office environment. Some say it is because of the hours required: either they are too long or are not sufficiently flexible. The hours need to be flexible in order to allow someone to manage their stress levels by not working when their anxiety is too high or by working flexi hours so that they can work the hours which best suit their moods eg missing out on the rush hour traffic: too much stimulation/stress from the rush hour resulting in heightened stress/irritability/anger etc. They could then work later into the evening perhaps when the office is quieter so that their environment is less stressful, noisy, demanding thereby reducing their anxiety levels.

As for work colleagues making comments about mental health: how would these comments being perceived if they were racist or sexist? Comments such as someone being “mental” are as appalling and unacceptable as comments like “nigger”. The managers should take these comments seriously and discipline those who are making them; it is only when these disciplinaries take place that your work colleagues will realise that their comments are wholly unacceptable.

I am sad to hear that you are unemployed: I am also struggling with trying to work out how to make a living whilst managing my disorder but am fast coming to the conclusion that the only way to work is to be self-employed to enable me to work the hours which suit my need to manage my stress levels effectively.

Please could you let me know about the reasons given to you by the DVLA and also what work it is that you do?

Thanks for commenting and good luck with everything.

I left a job after 6 years and recently went back to it which hard. They were obviously concerned as well as it was only a temporary contract initially and then another temporary one just to make sure. They were good to take me back though I guess.

Anyway it didn’t work for me in that environment so they were probably right, but was definitely made to feel like a second class citizine on occassion – my career never progressed in 6 years at the company while others seemed to take off as well. Family comments have not always been helpful at times.

The DVLA stopped me from driving twice in the beginning as well even though my doctor’s said I should be fine to drive. Anyway that may be a bit difficult to judge with the medication they give you sometimes. Haven’t had an accident yet in 17 years of driving though.

I’m probably fortunate compared to many people, but have come across the odd annoyance just by not being as well adjusted as some.

Currently out of work and trying to figure out how to make a living without having to work in an office which doesn’t seem to do me any favours.