Editorial
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-09-2016-0027 |
| Pages | 197-201 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| Author | Rachel Perkins,Julie Repper |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Rachel Perkins and Julie Repper
Recovery and the right to contribute
Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness (Sigmund Freud, 1961).
If love and work are central to our humanity they are also central to recovery. Everyone who
experiences mental health problems faces the challenge of recovery: growing beyond what has
happened and recovering a new sense of self, meaning and purpose in life; retaining or
recovering a meaningful, valued and satisfying life (Anthony, 1993; Repper and Perkins, 2003).
A sense of belonging –love, having people around you who care about you and who you care
about –are central to rebuilding a new sense of self and meaning. Having a purpose in life: being
able to contribute to others and to your community is equally important.
Many people who have experienced mental health challenges have talked movingly about the
loss of belonging, meaning and purpose in life associated with worklessness:
Out of the blue your job is gone, and with it any financial security you may have had. At a stroke, you
have no purpose in life, and no contact with other people. You find yourself totally isolated from the
rest of the world. No one telephones you. Much less writes. No-one seems to care if you are alive or
dead (Bird, 2001).
[…] I was 19 and had the same ambitions as any other 19 year old. I had hoped to make a place in the
world for myself. But instead I was a patient in a hospital […] the vocational rehabilitation counsellor
[…] said “Well there’s nothing much I have to offer you; I can see from your records that you’ll never be
capable of holding a job.”Tears came to my eyes; I thought all the facts were in. At the age of 19, when
most people are eagerly anticipating and planning for the future, I had been told that I had nothing to
look forward to but a “career”as a ward of the state (Rogers, 1995).
The importance of work in mental health has long been recognised (see Bennett, 1970;
Rowland and Perkins, 1988; Perkins, 2012). As far back as 192AD the Greek physician and
philosopher Galen described work as “nature’s best physician”and “essential for human
happiness”(see Rowland and Perkins, 1988). The value of work is one of the few things that
clinicians coming from very different theoretical perspectives can agree upon. Sigmund Freud
(1961) argued that people need two things –love and work –and that it is work that “binds the
individual to reality”. Thomas Szasz (1974) described work as “the closest thing to a panacea
known to medical science”.
The use of work to alleviate psychological distress is usually dated back to the work of eighteenth
century pioneers like Halloram in Cork, Esquirol and Pinel in Bicetre, Paris and Tuke and Murray
at the Retreat in York (see Rowlands and Perkins, 1988). More recently, Professor Bob Drake
has observed:
In following people for 30 years and then following patients who are in dozens and dozens of research
studies that are sent around, it’s totally clear to me at this point that there’s nothing about medications
or psychotherapies or rehabilitation programs or case management programs or any of the other
things that we study that helps people to recover in the same way that supported employment does
(Drake, 2008).
The right to work is enshrined in:
■Article 23 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): “Everyone has
the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and
to protection against unemployment”.
■Article 6 and 7 of the United Nations (1996) “International covenant of economic, social and
cultural rights”:“States parties to the present covenant recognise the right to work, which
includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely
chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right”.
DOI 10.1108/MHSI-09-2016-0027 VOL. 20 NO. 4 2016, pp. 197-201, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308
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Editorial
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