I’m talking about mental health.

I was reading this short article on LinkedIn and the comments on it: https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/mental-health-pto-is-often-denied-6125844/

I have to share my feelings on it because the situation sickened me.

It seems that 30 percent of mental health claims for disability pay were denied last year, compared to 18 percent of all other disability claims, according to the article. What does this tell us?

It tells us that mental health is viewed as less important than physical health in the workplace—and in the world in general.

As a person with a documented mental illness who works productively and even owns and operates a business, I rely on effective mental health care. When I was working at a staff job (as opposed to being my own boss), I was often forced to schedule appointments with counselors and psychiatrists during the workday, because those professionals worked the same hours I did. I was very blessed that I did not need notes from the professionals in order to use sick leave. (I am aware that sick leave is not the same as PTO, but it is very similar and suffers from the same problems regarding mental health.)

Very occasionally, I had to take a mental health day just to keep myself alive, because I knew I could not function at work that day due to severe depression or mania. Again, I was incredibly blessed that this did not need documentation. This was about 20 years ago. I don’t know if I could do the same thing in today’s workplace.

A lot of employers have “Employee Assistance Programs.” For me, these have proved to be ineffective.

Employers, and society in general, these days claim to be more cognizant of the mental health of their workers. However, if they don’t start treating it the same as their physical health, nothing is going to get better.