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Seriously mentally ill individuals routinely lie by omission in job applications to employers

Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis deemed seriously mentally ill. He was also on a powerful anti depressant “Trazadone” at the time of the shooting – an antidepressant that carries an FDA black box warning for suicide, and is documented to cause mania and violent behavior.Pictured here Alexis armed with a shotgun on a shooting rampage inside the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. on September 16, 2013.

People with SMI (serious mental illness) routinely lie by omission on job applications to employers in order to gain employment. Additionally they feel justified in doing so on the basis that employers “don’t need to know that information.”

To make matter worse SMI determined individuals are affirmed in doing so in many case by peer support, case managers, mental health professionals and clinical psychologists – who convince them that this is part of their “recovery.”

I found this out recently after I talked to a former chairwoman of the Capitol Center Clinic Council Advisory Board in Phoenix, Arizona, who feels it necessary to “lie by omission” to her current employer about her SMI status – in order to get a job? This employer by the way has no idea she is seriously mentally ill.

I wanted to talk with her more about this but it’s a very touchy issue as you can imagine. With that being said – a lie of admission is still a lie.
I also question the ethics of anyone involved in lying to someone who is in charge of you and has a responsibility in terms of your safety and the safety of other employees and the public. People need to know these things.
I was also shocked by people who work at this very clinic who “alibi” this behavior, going so far as to suggest to me “you don’t have to tell your employer your SMI” and “They don’t need to know that information.”

This poses not only a serious threat to employers who have an obligation to protect that employee, but other employees within that organization and the general public.

Many employers have absolutely no idea the person they just hired or has been working for them are SMI, as determined by regional mental health provider.

Many of these same individual are on some of the most powerful anti psychotic medications on earth, which put them at increased risk of such things as suicide and mental instability, especially in those cases where that individual either stops taking those medications or encounters some “trigger” which leads directly or indirectly to a psychotic breakdown of some kind caused by stress.

See article: Psychiatric drugs blamed for shootings http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Psychiatric-drugs-blamed-for-shootings-4470936.php

The correlation between psychiatric drugs and acts of violence and homicide is well documented.

See also article: 31 school shooters on drugs school related shootings on psychiatric drugs http://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/

Between 2004 and 2012, there have been 14,773 reports to the U.S. FDA’s MedWatch system on psychiatric drugs causing violent side effects including: 1,531 cases of homicidal ideation/homicide, 3,287 cases of mania & 8,219 cases of aggression. Note:  The FDA estimates that less than 1% of all serious events are ever reported to it, so the actual number of side effects occurring are most certainly higher (source: School shootings and psychiatric drugs federal investigation long overdue http://www.cchrint.org/2012/07/20/the-aurora-colorado-tragedy-another-senseless-shooting-another-psychotropic-drug/).

Sadly employers only find this information out after a tragedy occurs such as a shooting  such as the Washington Navy Yard shooting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting).

In this case  it has been discovered that independent contractors didn’t disclose the fact that their sub contractor’s has issues with mentally illness (see article: Navy Yard shooter’s employer aware of mental illness before shooting (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/31/navy-yard-shooter-employer-aware-possible-mental-illness-before-incident/).

 

 

 

Justin A: Learn more about me here:



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