Transcript of Video: Sandy Naiman

[Images on screen: the Mental Health Works logo, photographs of people in motion, and a photograph of Sandy Naiman.]

Narrator: Mental Health Works is increasing awareness by opening up discussion around the issues of mental health in the workplace. In so doing, we strive to improve the working lives of those with mental disabilities, while assisting employers in finding solutions to concerns about mental disability, accommodation, and the necessity to maintain profit.

Sandy Naiman studied journalism at Ryerson University, and has been a feature writer with the Toronto Sun for over 25 years. Sandy is speaking to you today as an advocate for awareness and accommodation in the workplace.

[Image on screen: Sandy Naiman addressing the viewer.]

Sandy Naiman: Hi, my name is Sandy Naiman, and I'm senior writer with the Toronto Sun. I also have a serious problem with mental illness. I've been in psychotherapy for more than 43 years, and I've been diagnosed as schizophrenic, catatonic schizophrenic, manic depressive, and now I have a new label, a unique label: I have a unipolar mood disorder with a vulnerability to mania. Even though I live with mental illness every day, and even though mental illness is a fact of my life—I take medication for it every day—I still believe I am a productive member of society. Why? Because I can work, I can achieve, and I can give back.

I have this dream: To see mental illnesses treated like any other illnesses. Like any other chronic illnesses, like asthma, or arthritis, or diabetes. Now, you wouldn't see someone with those illnesses discriminated against in the workplace; yet mental illnesses are different. People who have mental illnesses are discriminated against, right now in the workplace, because of stigma and all kinds of other reasons.

Fifty or sixty years ago, cancer was so stigmatized it was known as the "C word," and people feared they would lose their jobs or never work again if their employers found out they were being treated for it. Well, mental illness is the same today. You know, I'm a lot more than my mental illness. That's just one part of me. I'm a wife, I'm a stepmother, I love theatre, I love film, I love to read, I have a dog. I have all sorts of facets to my life and mental illness is just one of them. And that's the same for all of us who have mental illnesses; that's just one part of our lives, that's just one facet of who we are, because we're all individuals and we all have so much to give if we're given the chance.

And that means we have to change. It's time for social change. You can be a vehicle for that change. You can change your landscapes in your corporations. You can educate your employees and your managers and your middle managers so that your workplaces and you can become corporately courageous. Now is the time to change.

Narrator: As Sandy suggests, the time for change is now. We at Mental Health Works want to help you develop a workplace that is free of stigma and discrimination. We want to help employers address the issues in a way that works for all concerned. It takes courage to change.

[Images on screen: Mental Health Works logo above the words, Produced by Mental Health Works, www.mentalhealthworks.ca. Logo of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario, www.ontario.cmha.ca.

Fade to image of logo of Human Resources Development Canada, www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca.

Fade to the words: In association with: Interpersonal Skills Teaching Centre (ISTC), www.ryerson.ca/istc. Logos of the ISTC and Ryerson University.]

To watch the video go to: www.mentalhealthworks.ca/employers/profiles/culture_of_openness.asp