Still stigma attached to depression

CANADA Some feel the disorder is a choice

At the same time as more workplaces are responding to depression at a “remarkable” pace, some stigma still remains toward the mood disorder, with some Canadians saying they believe that people choose to be depressed, according to a new survey.

Seven out of 10 surveyed Canadians said that there needs to be a way to verify that someone is actually suffering from depression before they’re given any special consideration at work, according to a new survey of 6,624 working Canadians conducted by polling company Ipsos Reid for the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace.

That’s up 11 points from 2007. Two in 10 of those surveyed also said they believed that depressed people can just “snap out of it” if they really wanted. One in 10 said people choose to be depressed.

There’s still some stigma and lack of awareness when it comes to mental illness, said Mary Ann Baynton, the program director for the GreatWest Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace.

“I think people still get confused between feeling sad or depressed or frustrated, and the clinical diagnosis of depression.

And it is not understanding the difference between those two that leads to this kind of information,” Baynton said.

“But I feel like we’re getting there.”

A person who is experiencing depression grapples with severe and prolonged feelings of despair, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association. It can affect nearly every aspect of someone’s life, the association said, and nearly three million Canadians will experience depression at some point in their lives.

Fifteen per cent of those experiencing severe depression commit suicide, according to the association.

Depression is most common in people in their working years – 24 to 44, the association said. And it leads to decreased productivity and increased sick days if it’s left undetected.

There is a trend toward more awareness in the workplace, with more managers/supervisors seeking and receiving training to be able to respond effectively to an employee who they believe is showing signs of depression, according to the new survey of more than 6,000 workers — 4,307 of them employees and 2,317 managers/ supervisors.

More than half of the managers and supervisors surveyed said they had personally intervened with an employee who they believed was showing these signs, up from 29 per cent in 2007.

And 31 per cent said they had received training to help identify and deal with these employees, up from 18 per cent five years ago.

“What’s encouraging is that we’re actually seeing people take action,” said John Wright, the senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid.

“We’re actually seeing sensitivity now, in real numbers.”

The progress over the last five years has been “remarkable,” but there’s still a lot more to do, Wright said. This includes making sure that the resources are there to help someone identified as experiencing depression.

One in 10 employees reported feeling little interest or pleasure in doing things, or feeling down, depressed or hopeless nearly every day or more than half of the days in the two weeks leading up to the survey.