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Suicide & The Workplace — Globalization, Job Strain, and the Dark Side of the New Economy: Interview with Dr. Allison Milner | Episode 30
NOTE: This podcast will air on 2/26/19 at 10:00AM ET https://soundcloud.com/user-225414284-842732102
Overview
Too often when we talk about mental health promotion and suicide prevention in the workplace, the main message is about how to get workers who are suffering to counselors. Not enough attention is paid to the environmental aspects of the workplace that may be contributing to despair and what peers, managers and leadership can do to solve these problems. The research is clear — job strain is connected to suicide risk (Milner, et al, 2017). In particular certain types of job strain are related to suicide attempts and death:

Low control (limited decision-making)

High demand (pressure, workload)

Effort-reward imbalance (e.g., high pressure/expectations with little reward — income, respect or security)

Job insecurity

Bullying/harassment (Leach et al)

On this podcast I interview an international authority on workplace suicide and mental health research, Dr. Allison Milner. Join us as we explore some of the social determinants of suicide through a social justice lens in the world of work.

“Suicide prevention doesn’t just magically happen on the psychiatrist’s couch…It happens peer-to-peer. We need the day-to-day interactions to support mental health services and help resolve issues when they are smaller.”

About Dr. Allison Milner
Allison Milner
Dr. Allison Milner is a Deputy Director of the Disability and Health Unit, Melbourne School Population and Global Health, the University of Melbourne. Her current areas of research interests include the influence of gender, employment characteristics, quality of work, and occupation as determinants of mental health and suicide. Allison also focuses on specific employed groups that may be particularly likely to face disadvantage, such as blue-collar workers in the manufacturing and construction industry. Allison’s work ranges across a number of externally-funded etiologic and intervention projects. She works with key policy stakeholders to promote research on the link between work and mental health, and is the co-chair for an international panel of researchers aiming to promote workplace suicide prevention. She has been awarded the Victorian Health and Medical Research Fellowship for her work on gender, employment and mental health. In this work, she is progressing the concept of “gendered working environments” as a cause of health inequalities. For more information on this and every episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/30

41% of adults who identify as transgender have attempted suicide (versus 4.6% of U.S. general population and 10-20% of LGB adults). The issues driving this despair are usually best understood through a lens of social justice.

Discrimination, trauma and the consequences of minority stress are often at the root of suicidal despair within the trans community (AFSP). Rejection by friends and family is common among people who identify as transgender, and conversely when trans people have strong support they are significantly less likely to die by suicide. Harassment and assaults are common for trans people at work and at school and can even lead to internalized transphobia. All too often, people trying to “help” others who identify as trans force reparative or conversion “therapy” upon them, which is experienced as traumatic and is considered unethical. Thus, in order to “fix” the suicide issue among transgender people, we need to look beyond the individual and shift culture. We must fight injustice and advocate for safety.

Iden and me.jpg
Iden and I have become friends through our service together on the Consumer/Survivor Committee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. In this podcast, Iden and I talk about his incredibly inspiring journey into activism and some take-away messages about building resilience.

About Iden Campbell
Iden Campbell was born biologically a female, raised as a female, and later in life transitioned to living as a male. He was first diagnosed with depression in the third grade and has lived with depression and suicidal thoughts for much of his life.

Iden Campbell.jpeg
Iden spent most of his adulthood living androgynous, as neither male or female, dressing and behaving as genderless as possible in order to — in his words “hide and survive.” Iden has lived through his own suicide attempt and also survived the loss of his partner to suicide.

Then in 2007 he read the 2007 Newsweek article entitled; “The Mystery of Gender” , and the article gave him a new outlook on living. Now he finally feels hope that his life could now be less painful, living as the gender has always felt inside.

“The transgender community is extremely resilient,” said Campbell in an Op Ed piece for the New York Times. “We have lived through some horrific shared experiences. I’m thankful to all who came before me, those who made it possible for me to now live out loud in my skin. I’m grateful to be here at this amazing turning point in the history of the trans community.”

Today, Iden is a nationally known activist in the transgender community, speaking on suicide prevention, transgender health and wellness. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Campbell Center, a peer-run agency in Washington, D.C. for individuals living with mental health and addictions challenges.

Among many other acknowledgements of his leadership Iden also won the 2013 National LGBT Leadership Award at the Alternatives Conference in Austin, TX.

You can connect with Iden on Twitter and Instagram @IdenCampbell and on Facebook @TheCampbellCenter. For more information on this and every episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/13