The Distance Between Mental Illness and the Real World

In the hit drama The World Between Us, when Ying Szu-yueh faces her younger brother Ying Szu-ts'ung's mental illness, she blurts out, "Would it be better if he had cancer?" This vividly depicts the contradictory predicament faced by the families of people with psychosocial disabilities. In fact, a similar sentiment once appeared in Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore. In the film, Moore plays a Columbia University professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible condition that gradually strips away a person's mind and mobility. Aside from her own excruciating suffering, her family and friends must also accept and adapt to this reality.

While movies and dramas possess dramatic tension, they often obscure certain realities to some extent—when seeking employment, most people with psychosocial disabilities conceal or refuse to disclose their psychiatric history from the very beginning to avoid being rejected. It is only when they frequently take leave for medical treatment or medication that their history of psychosocial disability is discovered, immediately followed by bullying, dismissal, and an even heavier blow causing secondary victimization.

In the real world, we have witnessed far too many such cases. For instance, as soon as a supervisor discovered that Hsiao-ling, who had been on the job for only two weeks, suffered from severe depression, they immediately predicted that work stress would trigger her condition and render her incompetent, and thus dismissed her. In another case, after Hsiao-dian confessed during an interview that she had a mental illness, the interviewer immediately informed her that they were no longer hiring due to business downsizing. Consequently, Hsiao-dian was not hired, yet the job posting was never taken down, and applicants continued to stream in endlessly.

Stigmatization is the result of society and its systems turning a blind eye, intentionally or unintentionally, over the years. Without mutual understanding, the rift deepens day by day, ultimately generating various forms of discrimination and stigma. We will never truly know how many people in need of help have consequently refused assistance and become unwilling to obtain a disability proof.

Looking into the Employment Service Act, overseen by the Ministry of Labor, Article 5, Paragraph 1 clearly stipulates that "an employer shall not discriminate against a job seeker or an employee whom he/she employs on the basis of... physical or mental disability..." Meanwhile, Article 22 of the Mental Health Act, overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, also stipulates that "a patient's personality and legitimate rights and interests shall be respected and protected, and they shall not be discriminated against. For those whose condition is stable, they shall not be refused schooling, examinations, employment, or subjected to other unfair treatment on the ground that they have previously suffered from a mental illness." Each law also provides its own appeal or remedy procedures.

However, in practical operation, aside from the fact that the two laws fall under different competent authorities leading to a fragmented approach, the term "physical or mental disability" in the Employment Service Act is usually interpreted by the competent authority as requiring the person to have "obtained a disability proof." This creates a contradiction: for a person with a psychosocial disability to be protected against discrimination under the Employment Service Act, they must hold a disability handbook. Yet, as in the previous examples, to avoid being looked at strangely by ordinary people, individuals with psychosocial disabilities will not proactively obtain such proof, and may even conceal their health condition by avoiding medical treatment, leading to a deterioration of their condition and making them even less accepted by society.

Although the Ministry of Labor has attempted to expand the scope of application for employment discrimination, frontline civil servants are unclear about it, leaving the laws empty shells while people with psychosocial disabilities still have nowhere to turn for help.

We can imagine that individuals with psychosocial disabilities face not only the challenge of social stereotypes, but also the tangled and confusing regulations—though well-intentioned—that only make the problem more complicated. This is no longer something that can be resolved simply by passing the Enforcement Act of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In fact, over the past few years, the CRPD Justice Legal Team has begun assisting certain cases in seeking judicial remedies, but the results so far have been ineffective. Therefore, aside from connecting regulations through various methods of legal interpretation, enacting an anti-discrimination law as soon as possible is likely the most pressing priority.

Note: CRPD is the abbreviation for The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Taiwan has also legislated and implemented the Enforcement Act of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, giving the CRPD provisions protecting the human rights of persons with disabilities domestic legal effect.

※ This article was published in the Apple Daily on May 2, 2019