Narrator (00:02):
This recording is an offering of Networks for Training and Developments Online University.

Tracy (00:12):
Welcome to podcast for of assistive technology and accommodations on the job. The focus today is mental health accommodations. So what about mental health? We've talked a lot about the accommodations that are available for physical limitations or physical challenges, but we're going to talk today about mental health and prior to today's podcast, it would be helpful if you would have looked through the resource that's in the app from JAM, The Job Accommodation Network. There's an article there, employees with mental health impairments, and most of the content today has been pulled from that particular article. So that is a great resource for you. So if you haven't looked over that article yet, I would encourage you to pause this podcast, take a quick look through that or pull it out while we go through this discussion.

Tracy (01:07):
Mental health accommodations are as important as any physical accommodations or pieces of assistive technology that we might use to help a person to be more efficient and productive at work, because it does help with a person being more comfortable and more happy. And if you are comfortable and happy at work, you will be more productive and have more positive experiences at work.

Tracy (01:29):
So what is the prevalence of mental health impairment? I was quite surprised to find that one in every four adults experience mental health impairment in a given year. That's 25% of the population. And I'm pretty sure that since the start of this pandemic, that that number is way higher than that. Many of us have experienced mental health challenges throughout the course of these last two years. And there are a number of mental health impairments that we typically think of when we think about mental health and, usually like your major depression, bipolar disorder, panic, OCD, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, seasonal effective disorder. And of course there's so many more, that I can't even list them all, but those are the ones that typically come to mind.

Tracy (02:22):
But when we're looking at work accommodations, it may not be just someone with a mental health diagnosis, the overall mental health of the person. And there are some things that we need to ask ourselves when we are looking at whether or not a person requires an accommodation for mental health. And some of those things are: what limitations is that particular employee experiencing on the job and how do these limitations affect the employee and their job performance? And then look at the job tasks. What are some of the specific job tasks that are problematic as a result of these limitations? What accommodations are naturally available to reduce or eliminate these problems? Just looking at the environment, looking at the universal design that we talked about earlier, what is available in the context of the natural environment that can help with these things? And has this employee been consulted regarding possible accommodations?

Tracy (03:17):
Remember we always have to go back to the person and asking them, "What might help you with this particular challenge?" And once the accommodations are in place, we need to meet with employees to make sure that they're working. And if they're not working, we keep going back and looking at other strategies and perhaps do some training with personnel and employees regarding mental health and mental health accommodations. So when I look at the problem areas that can typically occur with mental health, and these are not just with the mental health disorder, but also with what many of us have been experiencing before the pandemic and with the pandemic, that anxiety, that fear, lack of concentration, our minds on a hundred different other things. Those kinds of things that became more prevalent over the last two years, I think about all those things as well.

Tracy (04:11):
So some of the areas that are frequently impacted by mental health are attendance, the ability to concentrate, emotionality, fatigue, memory, organization, panic attacks, sleep, stress, and sometimes coworker interaction. And if you review the article, you'll see that many of the accommodations listed under each of those areas kind of can go across the board. So I'm not going to do them individually, I'm just going to highlight those common accommodations that can help with mental health in the workplace.

Tracy (04:50):
First off, allowing a flexible work environment with flexible scheduling, a modified break schedule, maybe some working from home that may help with attendance. It certainly might help with people who are experiencing a lot of stress or panic throughout their day or fatigue, because they'd be able to get up and move if they're working from home, maybe go get a drink, take a rest. So come back and forth with their work station, their accommodations for concentration and memory, and organization, which kind of meld together.

Tracy (05:24):
And these are maybe providing some sensory strategies, like to help block out sound or block out visual distractions. Perhaps for me, it's sitting facing a blank space, facing a blank wall, not facing out into a room where I can see everything that's going on. Some workspaces might use partitions to kind of do a tri fold partition around the area where the person's working so that they can stay focused and not have those distractions.

Tracy (05:53):
Perhaps it's sound. You might need to have maybe some sound canceling headphones or white noise or some music playing that will help to block out some of the excess noise in the area to help with concentration and focus and organization.

Tracy (06:10):
Lighting can help as well with concentration. Sometimes we might need a bright light on the item that we're working on to help us focus a little bit more. But then again, some people might require dimmer light. They focus better when there's not the bright. Bright light is super alerting.

Tracy (06:26):
So again, we have to look at the person using checklists or sticky notes, little reminders to tell us what we need to do and keep us on track, having weekly, monthly and daily task lists, using calendars, electronic organizers, alerts on our phone or on our computer. I know for many of us we're setting up zoom meetings. Our alerts might come on to let us know if you have a zoom meeting coming up so that you don't miss out on that particular meeting. We might need a list of auditory or visual cues if we're having difficulty with memory, taking minutes to meetings and having them available either on a recording or written to help us remember what was discussed at a meeting, using notebooks or planners to record information. I sometimes use different notebooks to record what I need to do for different job projects that I'm doing so I can stay on top of them.

Tracy (07:23):
Some people have difficulty coming up with their own strategies for organization and memory. So as a job coach or as an employer, it's imperative that we work with individuals to help them develop those accommodations that will work for them. When we're looking at coworker interaction, we may have some people that do not work well next to each other or near each other. So doing what we can do as far as maybe reassigning workspaces and providing training and to encourage an employee to walk away from a frustrating situation or a confrontation, providing some workspaces that have partitions or doors for privacy may also help with that. So there are a number of different accommodations that we can use to help with mental health on the job.

Tracy (08:10):
And again, I encourage you to refer to that article. All of the accommodation ideas are there for all of the areas we just talked about and they are isolated out, but there's many more that could be done in addition to those.

Tracy (08:25):
As an employer or a supervisor, there are a number of management strategies that can support an inclusive workplace while simultaneously providing accommodations, like a universal design for mental health. Some of these strategies or techniques might be: being able to provide praise and positive reinforcement when things are being completed the way they need to be completed; providing day to day guidance and feedback; provide written job instructions via email or recorded, if needed; make sure that the expectations of responsibilities are very clear and concise; scheduling consistent meetings with employees to set goals and review their progress; allowing for open communication for that person to be able to reach out to a supervisor or a coworker identified to help them throughout the day; having long term, short term goals for employees; have definite strategies developed to deal with conflict that are across the board in the workplace; developing procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of an accommodation; educating all the employees on their right to accommodations; sensitivity training to coworkers and supervisors; and encouraging all employees to move non-work related conversations out of the work areas so that it's not stressful to others.

Tracy (09:45):
But those are just a few things that are in that JAM article that show us that there are some inclusive practices which are really universal design accommodations for mental health needs. Also in the app, there is a checklist for a mentally healthy workplace. And this checklist is put out by EARN, Employer Assistance and Resource Network on disability inclusion. And I really like this checklist and it looks at the four As: awareness, accommodation, assistance and access. So I want you to look through that checklist. I'm not going to go through each of those components now, but I want you to look through that checklist. And as part of your assignment, I want you to report back on how your workplace addresses those four As: awareness, accommodation, assistance, and access. And they are listed in that checklist that's in the app.

Tracy (10:44):
Another question I'd like you to answer is what mental health accommodations do you personally use in the workplace? So again, the assignment is to look at the four As checklist for a mentally healthy workplace. How does your workplace address these four As and what mental health accommodations do you personally use and why? So, that concludes our podcast on mental health accommodation. Thank you.

Narrator (11:13):
Thank you for listening. We hope the information provided was helpful. Don't forget to stop by our website and take advantage of all we have to offer.