By Yixiang Zeng
A local charity is calling on businesses to offer mentally ill people jobs.
Capable Communities, which co-ordinated this year's World Mental Health Day since Friday, wants to work closely with companies to get people who suffer with mental illnesses into work.
The four-day event offers an opportunity to raise awareness of mental health and provide locals with a range of suggestions on how to reduce stress and depression in order to keep healthy.
Steve Porter, director of the charity, believes people with mental problems could get jobs in box offices, he said: “At the moment many tickets are operating on the web, but people want someone to talk to when booking their shows.
“What I am saying is to get the companies involved in paying someone with mental health difficulties to sell the tickets.”
He also suggested that the box office could operate in a shift system with different people working in a different time slot.
In addition, they could do other jobs in marketing. “They could also distribute marketing materials like flyers or posters to community centre or residential addresses relating with any events,” he added.
Another local charity Mind in Harrow also participated in the event, its chief executive Mark Gillham told The HA1: “One in six of the population in Harrow will have mental health problems today, that is estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people will have such difficulties.”
The charity has been training mentally ill people to become trainers, who are then employed by local companies to help their employees overcome different symptoms of mental illnesses.
Mr Gillham explained it is very important for both the trainers and companies to get involved: “These people have been out of work for long time, because of the mental health being very disadvantageous.
“Being qualified as trainers, they will have real work experience, and be able to use their own experience of mental health problem to explain directly what they have been through.
“From the company side, the manager will have better understanding of employees' mental health issues, such as life stress and depression, or not be able to work to their best capacity. So it helps their businesses.”
However, when speaking to Allen Pluck, the president of Harrow in Business, about to what extent local businesses can give a hand to those people with mental health problems, he expressed his concern by saying:“at the moment, the whole of the business support infrastructure is in complete turmoil.
“We are even struggling to obtain funding to support the survival of any local business or individuals wishing to become self-employed.”
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