Avoiding unhelpful labels
[ch 2: page 16]The Wales TUC mental health toolkit sets out that common mental health terms include anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, psychosis and suicidal thoughts.
It makes clear, however, that “it is never the role of the rep or employer to diagnose a mental health issue” as this could be deeply damaging to the worker. It supports action to “drop the diagnosis” as it is not helpful to always relate to a person’s mental health through their diagnosis and not everyone can or will receive a diagnosis for their mental health issues.
Those seeking a diagnosis should do so with a mental health professional. This does not need to be shared with an employer, although the employer will need to be aware the worker is experiencing mental health challenges if they are being asked to provide reasonable adjustments (See pages 40-41).
Wales TUC, Mental health and the Workplace - a toolkit for trade unionist (https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-12/Mental%20health%20and%20the%20workplace%20toolkit%20ENG_0.pdf)