Browsing by Author "Lillqvist, Miranda"

Aims. Previous research shows that attitudes towards mental illness are to some extent negative and that stigmatization and discrimination exist, therefore a majority of the one´s who suffer from mental illness choose not to reveal their condition. Employees suffering from mental illness have a greater risk of losing their jobs, have worse career opportunities and are in the risk zone of being bullied or even left as an outcast. The aim of this study was to identify different attitudes towards mentally ill employees in Finland and Sweden, how these attitudes affect their everyday working life and if research indicates a change of attitudes over time. Methods. I chose to demarcate this thesis on studies on attitudes towards mental illnesses among employees in Finland and Sweden, published between 2012 and 2017. The material was retrieved from various databases including Google Scholar, Helda, Helka and Julkari and the searches were made in Swedish, Finnish and English. The keywords I used were: mental illness, mental health, attitudes, working life, stigma, psykisk ohälsa, psykisk hälsa, attityder, arbetsliv, mielenterveys, asenteet and työelämä. Results and conclusions. The results of this study show that stigmatization and negative attitudes towards mental illness within the working life are prevalent both in Finland and Sweden. Yet, the general awareness of mental illness is relatively high and the supportive discussion about the subject is improving in organizations. However, the majority of mentally ill employees in rehab, executives and the general population considered that in situations where an employee is mentally ill, and the employer knows about it, there might be a risk of a lower status or maybe even a loss of an employment. The career prospects for employees with mental illness are limited, because of an unwillingness to hire or keep an employee suffering from mental illness. Employers who have previous experience of employees with mental illnesses are more willing to hire people who have or have had a mental illness. The attitudes of the employers and colleagues turned out to have a major impact on the affected person, and the support was considered extremely important. The fear of stigmatization, special treatment and the potential loss of employment leads to a concealment of the condition for the majority of the affected. Although the results show that the attitudes towards mental illness in the working life have improved over time, unfortunately negative attitudes and stigmatization still exists.