I started having severe and lengthy depressive episodes when I was 15 years old. At first I was I told I was just a normal teenager. As it persisted, the journey of constantly trying new medications with no results began.
Through all of this I managed to complete post secondary education and begin a career in HR. As I got more involved in accommodations I saw many individuals dealing with mental health concerns. My mentality with my own mental health was I just had to deal with it and get my job done. I approached accommodation and return to work with this attitude as well. It didn't help that the prevailing strategy from most HR professionals at the time was get people back to their full job as quickly as possible.
Then my mental health took a drastic and incredibly serious turn, where I was forced to acknowledge that I couldn't just work through it anymore.
As I asked for accommodations I realized that the way I had been handling accommodations for others with mental health struggles was not the way to go at all and I started making changes in my approach.
Over the last 12 years, I have seen the difference that the right approach from HR can have on accommodating mental health and reduce medical leave due to mental health.
Losing multiple jobs also made me see that tools for accommodating mental health were missing at all levels of the organizations that I was with. Even as HR, I didn't have to tools to effectively help with the accommodations that I thought I needed. My supervisors had no idea what to do when I did disclose.
This led me to realize that there was a gap that desperately needed attention when it comes to training and coaching around mental health accommodation for employers and successfully working with mental health for employees.
Thus I began Accommodation Analyzed and work to give employers and their valued employees the tools to navigate successful accommodation for individuals with mental health, while allowing them to still provide excellent value to their organization.
