Do Not Overlook Talent in People Who Have Mental Illness

I read a news article recently that says that there seems to be a close correlation between creativity and mental illness, and in the article it says: "Lead researcher, Dr Simon Kyaga, said the findings opened the way for certain disorders to be viewed as beneficial or desirable for certain occupations. For example, the disordered thoughts associated with schizophrenia may lend themselves to projects which require focus, determination and ingenuity." And I thought, this very philosophy allies closely to the blog article I wrote about using your strengths and ignoring your weaknesses. I suspect employers may be loath to hire people who have diagnosed mental illness conditions, yet, are they missing the possible potential brain power and creativity many people with mental illness possess? I was occasionally involved in brainstorming sessions when I used to work in an office environment, and the very essence of brainstorming is to cast off the possible and mull over the impossible and totally unlikely, as, often, a totally new, amazing paradigm may be arrived at when viewing something from an unexpected angle.

If you are an employer, consider, could someone, as the article says, who has a disordered thought pattern actually be the very person you might need to solve, for example, your long standing corporate marketing problem? Think about that point, the next time you turn someone who has a mental illness down for a job. Perhaps there might even be a way to tap into this potential using somewhat non traditional means, perhaps if employers were to change their job models and to include paying for a piece of work, instead of for time spent as a hired employee? Everyone has purpose!