Health Check Podcast: Fight mental health stigma by hiring someone recovering from mental illness

(From left) Head of Mindset Colyn Chua, CEO of Mindset Jeffery Tan and ST senior health correspondent Joyce Teo in the podcast studio. ST PHOTO: EDEN SOH

Synopsis: Every first and third Wednesday of the month, The Straits Times helps you make sense of health matters that affect you.

Gaining employment can boost the self-esteem of someone who is recovering from a mental illness and facilitate their recovery. But the discrimination against people with mental illnesses may make it difficult for them to find work. The challenges that come with their illnesses may also make it hard for them to conform to traditional work norms such as fixed working hours. But there is help from mental health charities in the community.

In this episode, ST senior health correspondent Joyce Teo finds out more about how Mindset, a mental health charity of the Jardine Matheson Group in Singapore, is helping mental health persons in recovery, find jobs as a way to reintegrate back into society.

She speaks with the CEO of Mindset, Jeffery Tan and the head of Mindset, Ms Colyn Chua. 

She asks them about the challenges these persons face and what employers can do to not just help them, but to raise awareness of mental health in general. She also asks Jeffery, who’s also group general counsel and the chief sustainability officer of Jardine Cycle & Carriage, under the Jardine Matheson Group, if he has spoken openly about his mental health in the workplace.

Highlights (click/tap above):

3:51 What jobs are available through Mindset?

8:34 Daily challenges faced by those in mental health recovery

10:59 Employer concerns regarding hiring those in mental health recovery

15:46 Understanding different types of mental health conditions

19:27 Tackling the stigma surrounding mental health disorders

Produced by: Joyce Teo (joyceteo@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and Eden Soh

Edited by: Eden Soh

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