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People with a mental health condition are often wary of disclosing their condition to employers fearing discrimination and stereotyping. While there are laws in place for preventing biases from creeping in with regard to race, gender, and disabilities, there is an implicit bias existing to this day in respect to people with a mental health condition.

Apart from this, many employers go out of their way to ensure a suitable working environment for people with a disability, particularly physical disabilities. However, they have not succeeded much in creating similar opportunities for mental patients. The need of the hour is to support the mentally ill join the workforce and other aspects of life.

It has been widely accepted that steady employment is a kind of mental health treatment in the case of people with a range of mental illnesses. Since mental patients often exhibit a range of talents and abilities, it is essential to make adequate investment in the vocational strategies particularly targeting them. This will also be in line with the defined rights of mentally ill patients.

With the growth in awareness about mental illnesses, many offices nowadays staff full-time counselors and offer online chat services to address common mental health-related problems, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, all the while maintaining the privacy of the employee. Some of the legal rights safeguarding the rights of people with mental illnesses have been discussed in this article.

Legal rights to protect from discrimination

Whether it is with regard to the right of being treated with respect and dignity or the right to receive remuneration and services as per one's entitlement, there are laws to ensure that any employee with a mental illness is not discriminated against on any of these levels because of their condition.

• Workplace privacy rights: This set of rights disbars an employer from inquiring about a person's medical condition, including mental health. One is entitled to reveal his or her condition only when he or she wants to access the benefits as defined by the law.
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Though certain antisocial tendencies, such as kleptomania, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, etc., have been excluded from the ambit of this law, most mental health conditions, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia, have been included. The Act was passed in 1990 and has injunctions against any kind of discrimination based on physical and mental disability in the workplace, government services, etc.

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