Elizabeth Marr
Elizabeth
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Marr, I am a bank support worker with SAMH in Dundee.  I started here in August last year after a few years of ill health, mental health problems, mainly depression and anxiety.  I was referred to Wedderburn, which is a mental health team in Dundee where I received CBT.  CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and I found that very useful because it makes you think and reason with yourself.  Because when you have mental health problems, especially depression, you react before you think – and the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy makes you stop and think logically why you are doing things or not doing things.  And it’s a technique … it’s a tool you learn for life and hopefully you will be able to use it all through your life.
When I was receiving my CBT I was introduced to Daniel, so I went and had a talk with Daniel about getting back into employment.
Daniel Johnston
When Liz was first introduced to our service she had been working with an occupational therapist and the community mental health team in Dundee for approximately a year, and she had undergone a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which had really progressed her from being someone who had found herself unable to leave her house to the point of actually wanting to get a job. 
Elizabeth
You do have a lot of doubts, you do, because you do doubt yourself, because like in my case I had been out of the system for so long – it’s a big, big step getting back – you doubt yourself getting back into employment.  But I still believe there is a stigma attached if you say you have had mental health problems – not everybody.  So you have got to overcome that as well.
Daniel
There has been that element of stigma and there have been problems that I’ve faced with employers when I have been speaking to them for the first time – even for the second and third time when I have been speaking to them I have had to challenge their attitudes, which is a big part of the job.
Elizabeth
Daniel helped me gain the confidence to apply for jobs.
Daniel
Certainly she was very keen to get a job doing something in the caring field, and with the type of work that I do I was able to work with her and find out what skills she had and what her past employment history was and where she actually wanted to work.  And thankfully a job came up – it is not the only job that she applied for, but a job came up here to work with people who had mental health issues, and that was just exactly where she wanted to work.
Elizabeth
I have always been a people person – I have always worked with people, and I enjoy it, because again it’s a variety and no two days are the same and that’s what I like.  And I also feel I have been there and done it, “bought the t-shirt” sort of thing, and I have empathy for the people and I have maybe a wee bit more understanding to how they could be feeling … I am not saying everybody, but if I could give them something that I got, I feel I have done something, I have achieved something.  
We go out and about into the community – there are people living out in the community – and there are two parts to this: there are what is called carers – these are people who are maybe caring for somebody with a mental health problem, say even Alzheimer’s, dementia, and they get no other support.  So we can go in and give the carers  respite – so the carer gets time to themselves, which is a valuable service.  The other part are for people that have maybe got more complex needs.  They can get, again whatever help they require.  Daily living is really a big part of it – we have got to encourage them for their personal hygiene, their domestic chores, shopping, just really giving them support.
Daniel
The clients that I am working with are just like anybody else – they get up in the morning, they go to sleep at night – just the same as anybody else.  Yes, they have mental health problems, but that is not going to stop them from working.  They are very, very capable of doing a job just the same as anyone else – they want to work.  And once employers realise that … because at the end of the day, all an employer really wants is someone who is going to turn up on time, leave on time, cause them least amount of fuss and do a really good job while they are there.  So once I explain that to employers, that that is all my clients want to do, generally that stigma does go away.
Elizabeth
They could see what was wrong with you if you had got a broken leg or a broken arm, but they can’t if you have had depression.  And if you are, what I call “through the other side”, I don’t see why they should not employ you.  It has made me whole again, it definitely has – getting back out, because you doubt getting back into employment, you doubt yourself.  And this is a total change for me of career, because I worked with children before – but this has been a great change and it’s a very satisfying job.
Daniel
The first thing that I have already touched on would be that people with mental health issues, they are just people, they want to work, they are as capable as anybody else of doing a good job.  They wouldn’t be coming to me to work on a voluntary programme, to try and find a job, if they weren’t capable and they didn’t want to do it.  But secondly, there are already people working who have mental health issues that employers know nothing about. There is that stigma attached and we know from recent figures that at least one in four people in Scotland will experience mental health issues at one point in their life.  This has led to high amounts of absenteeism for employers, so there have been people just taking days off sick.  So one of the ways that we can help with that is by helping employers realise that some of their staff will already have mental health issues, and offering employers training so that they know how to deal with that in a better way that is going to keep their workforce happier and keep them there, and therefore, in the long run, save them money, which is something everybody wants to do, especially in this day and age.
Elizabeth
Well I have said to them “I am living proof – I am proof that the system works, if you are willing to do it”.  It’s an illness – depression especially is an illness you have got to fight.  If you want to get out of it, you can get out of it, and there is life after it, because I am living proof – I am back and I am enjoying working.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

For more information about this case study, see http://content.iriss.org.uk/journeys/