- United States Department of Labor Resources: The Office of Disability Employment Policy has accumulated employer resources for the recruitment and retention of employees with disabilities.
- National Mental Health Association Infographic: This resource has been designed to communicate the importance of creating and fostering a stigma-free workplace.
- Disability Employment 101: This guide includes information about how to find qualified workers with disabilities and how to successfully integrate them into the workforce from the Department of Education.
- Substance Abuse in the Workplace: What to Do When an Employee Returns from Rehab
- A resource on the importance of inclusive technology for employees with disabilities.
- Creating an Inclusive Workplace: Stigma associated with psychiatric disabilities can create a discriminator work environment for people in recovery. This newsletter discusses types of discrimination & how they impact an employee.
- Inclusion@Work: This guide provides trainings and resources with strategies for creating a disability-inclusive workplace across your organization.
- Mental Illness & the Workplace: Lifting the Stigma: This page discusses mental illness myths & how supervisors can help an employee recovering from mental illness feel more comfortable in the workplace.
- PDF: Why I Hired an Executive with a Mental Illness: Through this article from the Harvard Business Review, Rob Lachenauer discusses what he learned from interviewing and hiring an individual with a mental illness.
- PDF: Understanding Psychiatric Disabilities: In his paper, Bruce Sanders explains why it’s important for employers & human resources professionals to understand employees with psychiatric disabilities, & how that understanding can benefit all parties involved.
- PDF: Workplace Warriors – The Corporate Response to Deployment & Reintegration: The largest deployment of civilian soldiers since World War II has created a new type of employee: The “workplace warrior,” returning from military deployment with the Reserves or National Guard. This paper overviews some of the best ways to support these individuals to promote their reintegration into the workplace.
- Enhancing Workplace Inclusion for Employees with Psychiatric Disabilities: The guide includes a description of a six step process for organizations, looking to create an internal mechanism that targets behaviors which discriminate against individuals with psychiatric disabilities & resolve them successfully for all employees to create a more inclusive environment.
- Addressing ways to support workplace wellness, mental health check-ins, and workplace accommodations, this guide highlights practices for supporting employees with mental health conditions.
Where can I learn about effective accommodations for retaining employees with psychiatric disabilities?
- Job Accommodation Network: A resource that outlines aspects of serious mental health conditions as well as provides information on the accommodation and compliance for the integration of individuals with mental health disabilities.
- MonTECH: An organization that provides confidential information about assistive technology devices and services for workers with disabilities.
- Getting an Adaptive Computer: This buyers’ guide to adaptive computers can help an employer or employee choose a computer that will fit the needs of its user.
- Mental Health Conditions in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act: This factsheet talks about psychiatric disabilities at work, including addressing myths and misconceptions.
- Reasonable Accommodations for People with Psychiatric Disabilities: This resource provides an overview of reasonable accommodations for employers & educators – definitions, legal standards, frequently asked questions, practical tips, & resources for further information.
- Webinar: Job Accommodations for Persons with Mental Health Conditions: What we learned from research & from the Job Accommodation Network’s technical assistance efforts that can benefit employees with mental health conditions & their employers. This Webinar was originally designed as a seminar for the US Business Leaders Network.
- PDF: Facts Sheets & Scenarios for Employers – Job Accommodations for Employees with Mental Health Conditions: This resource discusses the nature of workplace accommodations often needed to assist individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Additionally, there several scenarios which illustrate some of the accommodations these employees may need.
- PDF: Employing & Accommodating Individuals with Histories of Alcohol or Drug Abuse: This article describes how people with past substance abuse are protected from job discrimination by the Americans with Disabilities Act, along with persons with current alcohol problems who are able to perform their jobs.
- PDF: Accommodating Veteran Employees with Mental Health Issues: This report provides resources for those involved in the employment of veteran employees who suffer from combat-related mental illness.
- Ensure Productivity: Reasonable Accommodations: EARN provides a self-paced training and informative guide for employers to ensure reasonable accommodations are being provided.
- Telework: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission outlines how telework may be a reasonable accommodation.
- Workplace Flexibility: Types of workplace flexibility and who may benefit from them are discussed in this EARN guide, along with considerations for employers.
Where can I find resources that will help my organization maintain and support an inclusive workplace?
There are many kinds of supports available to employees with psychiatric disabilities: The links below refer to different supports and organizations that can lead you and your employee to resources both online and closer to home.
- The Disability Management Employer Coalition: An organization that provides education, knowledge, and networking for absence and disability professionals
- A resource on the importance of inclusive technology for employees with disabilities.
- Disability Equality Index: A joint initiative that provides organizations with an objective score on their disability inclusion policies and practices.
- Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion: A free resource that connects private businesses and federal agencies nationwide with qualified job candidates for temporary or permanent positions in a variety of fields.
- Job Accommodation Network: Resources for various levels of employment on the aspects of job accommodation for employees with disabilities.
- Work Support: The purpose of the Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research & Training Center (RRTC) is to identify effective supports for assisting individuals with disabilities to maintain employment & advance their careers.
- National Business & Disability Council: The council provides corporations with a full range of services to assist them in successfully integrating people with disabilities into the workplace, including a Resource Summary page.
Where can I find information about other health concerns that may impact my employees in the workplace?
- Workplaces Respond to Domestic & Sexual Violence: This national resource center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, promotes effective workplace responses to victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, dating violence, & stalking.
- National Center of Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA): NIAAA provides leadership in the national effort to reduce alcohol-related problems.
- National Business Group on Health: This coalition represents large employers’ perspectives on national health policy issues & offers links to tool-kits, books, other publications, & general information.
- Family and Medical Leave Act Employer Guide: This guide informs employers of their obligations under this act to support the health and wellbeing of their employees and their family members.
- Workplace Protections for Individuals Impacted by Cancer: For those fighting cancer and cancer survivors, this Department of Labor resource outlines their rights and potential accommodations in the workplace.
- Pregnant Workers: The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act outlines reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees and Tutle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions.
- Supporting Employees with Substance Use Disorder (SUD): A Guide for Employers