How Do I Talk About... Mental Health, Disability and Neurodiversity

How Do I Talk About…

Mental Health, Disability and Neurodiversity

How Do I Talk About… Mental Health, Disability and Neurodiversity

As we continue our work on enhancing our inclusive culture and overall working environment that enables our people to come to work, feeling comfortable and confident to be their true selves, we recognise that we all need support and guidance across all areas of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) to ensure we all feel included and valued irrespective and, indeed because of, our differences.

Within Dole UK and Ireland when we talk about D&I, we include Mental Health. Earlier in the year Dole UK and Ireland supported World Wellbeing Week and encouraged all employees to take part in various events in order to raise awareness and understanding with regard to employee mental health and wellbeing. Both countries also launched their new Mental Health and Wellbeing policy.

We all know the words we use can have a powerful impact on our conversations with our colleagues and better understanding of the terminology and its usage will help us all to respect each other regardless of our make up.

We have developed a ‘How do I talk about Guide’ for Mental Health, we have also included Disability and Neurodiversity. The guide is to support us all when working with and having conversations with colleagues regarding these particular areas.

Please take the time to raise your awareness by reading the guide and periodically reviewing it to refresh your memory. In the spirit of learning, please share your comments and any suggested additions to the guide so that we can continue to develop our language and approach in this area.

To share your views please talk to a member of the Group HR or H&S team in either country, or email: UK: karen.sharples@dole.co.uk

Ireland: miriam.williams@doleireland.com

Thank you for taking the time to enhance your overall D&I knowledge and in particular your understanding in relation to Mental Health, Disability and Neurodiversity. If you need any support or guidance please talk to your manager, the Group HR or H&S team.

Remember:

• We all have unique strengths, skills and abilities

• We are all different to each other

• It is important to listen to each other and to build empathy for experiences we do not understand

• Don’t judge others, learn from them

• Avoid justifying other people’s behaviours

• Avoid trying to convince people about your personal views

• Try your best to use the appropriate terminology

• Think before you speak, how will your questions/conversation make the person feel

• Ask yourself why you are asking the question/what will you do with the information

• Be prepared to answer the same questions you ask others

• Call out discriminatory behaviour and constructively challenge conscious and unconscious bias

Always be appropriate, inclusive and sensitive to how people feel.

We want all employees to feel included and valued irrespective and, indeed because, of their differences.

MENTAL HEALTH

Everyone has mental health, just like we all have physical health; it isn’t like an on/off switch. There are different degrees of health. People range from great or good health to so-so health to poor health to illness or disability. This applies to physical and mental health.

When we talk about mental health, we’re talking about our mental well-being:

• Emotions

• Thoughts

• Feelings

• Ability to solve problems and overcome difficulties

• Social connections

• Understanding the world around us

Respect the difference between: An emotion (sad/happy) and Mental ill health (depression, dementia)

MENTAL ILL HEALTH

Mental ill health is an illness that affects the way people think, feel, behave, or interact with others.

There are many different mental health illnesses, and they have different symptoms that impact people’s lives in different ways.

A mental health condition is considered a disability if it has a longterm effect on normal day-to-day activity. This is defined under the Equality Act 2010. A condition is “long term” if it lasts, or is likely to last, 12 months.

Examples of mental ill health (but not limited to):

• Dementia

• Depression

• Bipolar disorder

• Obsessive compulsive disorder

• Psychosis

Avoid phrases like ‘suffer from’, which denotes pity and can mischaracterise how someone is managing their illness.

Avoid the phrase ‘battling with’, fighting language creates a perception of “winners” versus “losers” and oversimplifies a person’s experience. Is someone not “fighting hard enough” if they don’t get well?

Avoid saying: “She’s psychotic”, “She suffers from “psychosis”, “She’s battling “psychosis”

Instead, say: “She has psychosis”.

Avoid generalisations like “He is mentally ill.”

Mental illness is OK to use as a general term, but specific conditions should be used, when possible, for example, “He has bipolar disorder”.

Avoid the term ‘the mentally ill’.

Avoid using the word ‘commit’ when referring to suicide: ‘commit’ can carry a criminal or negative moral meaning.

DISABLED PERSON/PEOPLE

The disability rights movement has redefined “disabled people” to mean ‘People with impairments who are disabled by socially constructed barriers.’ The term is seen as an effort to include people with all impairments in one minority group, which is troubled by society and has united to challenge the barriers society has put in place for it.

A disabled person is not a ‘person with a disability’ as the person does not own the disability in the way that you might be ‘a person with brown hair’.

Avoid using:

‘Person with a disability’

‘The disabled’

‘The handicapped’

‘Suffering from …….’

‘Crippled’

‘Wheelchair bound’

‘Victim of …..’

‘Physical/mental disabilities’

‘Able bodied’

TERMINOLOGY INFORMATION EXAMPLES

DISABILITY The social effects of having an impairment. A person who uses a wheelchair, for example, may have no problem at home where they are set up with ramps, lowered cooking surfaces, an adjustable bed and so forth. It is only when they are faced with difficulty to get to spaces (having to access a shop with stairs and no ramps or reach high shelves they can’t reach) in the outside world that they may consider themselves to have a disability.

• Buildings without ramps

• Poor health provision

• Bullying, name-calling

• Segregated education

• Workplaces without lifts

Examples of Acceptable Usage:

• Amy is a disabled person

• Rochene’s hearing impairment

• Marcus is blind

• Harvinder is autistic

• The neurodivergent community

When really necessary, you can refer to different impairments/disabilities, such as physical, mental, or sensory or learning, or neurological difference, often referred to as neurodivergence.

When speaking about people without impairments,

Avoid using the term ‘able bodied’

Instead:

Refer to ‘non-disabled people’

Understanding the critical difference between Disability and Impairment allows us to talk separately and clearly about:

• a named individual = the person, e.g. Fred

• impairment = their functioning, e.g. cerebral palsy

• disability = society’s barriers

e.g. Fred Brown (the person) is a man with cerebral palsy (the impairment).

When the barriers and discrimination (the disabilities) that restrict Fred have been removed from society,

TERMINOLOGY INFORMATION EXAMPLES USAGE

IMPAIRMENT Describes a person’s medical condition or diagnosis or description of their functioning

• Polio

• Quadriplegia

• Cerebral palsy

• Blindness

• Depression

• Deafness

Fred will no longer be disabled, but he will still have cerebral palsy and be called Fred. Always put the person first, not the disability

Avoid stating “The Blind person”

Instead say:

“Lesley is partially sighted”

Avoid asking ‘What is your disability’

Instead say:

‘Please let me know how I can meet your needs’

NEURODIVERSITY

While neurodiversity began as a way to describe people on the Autistic spectrum, the definition has since broadened to include other conditions. While some people believe that neurodivergence is a natural development of the human brain and therefore not a disability, others have reclaimed the title of disability as it acknowledges the social effects of their difference, and by recognising their disability, more can be done to remove barriers and make reasonable modifications, particularly in their working lives. Be mindful that many people who are neurodivergent may not have had a formal diagnosis, this may be the case in older people and also it can be prevalent in women, and people from ethnic minorities.

• Autism

• Dyslexia

• ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

• Dyscalculia

• DSD (Dyspraxia)

• Dysgraphia

• Tourette Syndrome

• and other neurological differences

Neurodivergent is someone who’s brain functions, learns and processes information differently than what the majority expect. A group can be neurodiverse, an individual is better described as neurodivergent.

Neurotypical is someone who’s brain operates in the same way as the majority of society. People who are not ‘neurodivergent’ can be described as ‘neurotypical’ rather than ‘normal’, which suggests that neurodivergent individuals are not normal.

Be mindful that mental health and neurodiversity are not the same, the terms are often mixed up. It can however be more common for people on the autisim spectrum than in the general population to experience poor mental health, due to the additional pressures for autistic people to navigate in a world that is built for neurotypical people.

AUTISM Autism affects the way a person perceives the world and how they interact with others. It’s associated with challenges including: social communication difficulties and sensory sensitivities. As well as strengths including: honesty, attention to detail, and superb memory.

People with Autism may have difficulty understanding both verbal and non-verbal language, communicating verbally, and expressing emotion. They may also experience sensory sensitivities, and can become anxious in response to change in routine. Autistic people can also be literal thinkers, and may find it difficult to follow instructions that aren’t specific. They can also become focused excessively on tasks, or worries.

Alongside their challenges, people with Autism have many associated strengths. For example a thorough, creative and attentive approach to tasks. People with Autism can often solve problems with creative thinking and superb attention to detail. Routine and structure is important, so autistic individuals are often very punctual. They also have the ability to focus intensely on a given task. People with Autism can often develop special interests and their passion and enthusiasm in the topic can lead them to hold a high level of expertise.

It’s important to note that Autism is referred to as a spectrum condition. That’s because the associated strengths and challenges vary widely from person to person. Being autistic will affect each individual in a different way. There are also other names for autism used by some people. For example, some people with Autism may identify as having Asperger’s, or Asperger syndrome.

DYSLEXIA Dyslexia is a language processing difficulty. It’s associated with challenges including, literacy difficulties, information-processing, and maintaining focus. As well as strengths including: pattern recognition, problem solving, and verbal communication skills. People with dyslexia may experience challenges with aspects of reading and writing, such as spelling and proofreading. They may also experience difficulty processing information in their short-term memory. This can mean a difficulty in putting detail into order, as well as maintaining focus. They may also find it challenging to concentrate with background noise.

Alongside challenges, dyslexia can also come with many strengths. For example, dyslexic minds process information visually. That means people with dyslexia are often able to recognise patterns and see trends in data. They can discover connections that others have missed. Such strengths lend themselves to good problem solving abilities. They also have good verbal communication skills. Dyslexic people can bring to the workplace original thinking. They are often able to look at tasks with a holistic and creative approach.

ADHD ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a behavioural condition.

People with ADHD may experience hyperactivity and impulsiveness. They might become easily distracted and prone to being restless or fidgeting. People with ADHD may find it difficult to maintain their focus.

Alongside challenges, people with ADHD may also be proactive and have the ability to work well under pressure. Other associated strengths include creativity, and the ability to think holistically, as well as resilience, which can often make people with ADHD great leaders. Hyperfocus is also associated with ADHD. Individuals that experience hyperfocus are driven by their interests, they are often able to focus with deep concentration and energetic drive.

DYSCALCULIA Dyscalculia is a learning condition that affects a person’s ability to understand number-based information and math. People who have dyscalculia may struggle with numbers and math because their brains don’t process math-related concepts like the brains of people without this condition.

The symptoms of this condition usually appear in childhood, especially when children learn how to do basic math. However, many adults have dyscalculia and don’t know it. People who have dyscalculia may face mental health issues when they have to do math, such as anxiety, depression and other difficult feelings. Some people are born with dyscalculia, others acquire it after a stroke, or head injury, or as a result of another neurological condition. When it is acquired, it is known as ‘acalculia’.

People with dyscalculia often have strengths such as intuitive and strong strategic thinking, they can be very creative and have a love of words.

DYSPRAXIA Dyspraxia is known as a Developmental Coordination Disorder. It’s commonly associated with challenges related to movement, such as planning and processing motor tasks. As well as strengths including: holistic thinking, tenacity and empathy.

People with dyspraxia may have difficulty with physical coordination. They may present with general clumsiness, disorientation, and poor balance. This can cause difficulties in handwriting, typing, and aspects of physical work. Individuals with dyspraxia may also have difficulty organising the content and sequence of their language. Dyspraxia can also affect short term memory, causing difficulty in remembering tasks.

Alongside challenges, dyspraxia can also lead to many strengths. For example, people with dyspraxia are often creative, holistic and strategic thinkers. They have very complex minds that excel at innovation and problem-solving. Individuals with dyspraxia often have high motivation and a determination to succeed. With a strong sense of empathy, they tend to have a good awareness of others and that makes them great team members.

DYSGRAPHIA Dysgraphia is a neurological condition in which someone can have difficulty turning their thoughts into written language for their age and ability to think, despite exposure to adequate instruction and education. Dysgraphia can present with many different symptoms at different ages.

People with Dysgraphia can also have many strengths such as good listening skills, strong memorisation and recall of detail, they can be great at telling stories, thrive in social situations and can be efficient problem solvers.

TOURETTE SYNDROME Tourette Syndrome Is a condition of the nervous system. TS causes people to have “tics”. Tics are sudden twitches, movements, or sounds that people do repeatedly. People who have tics cannot stop their body from doing these things. For example, a person might keep blinking over and over. Swearing is rare and only affects about 1 in 10 people with Tourette’s syndrome. The tics can increase during periods of high pressure or stress.

People with TS can also have many strengths which may include a tendency for creativity, high energy, quick to complete tasks they enjoy, a good sense of humour and often empathetic.

In the spirit of learning, please share your views and any suggested additions to this guide with a member of the Group HR or H&S team in either country or email