Changing how we talk about
mental health in the tech community
Funkatron : OSMI Fundraiser 2016: Great Success!
We raised the initial $10k in an astounding 64 hours and ended up creating a $15k stretch goal that was also smashed through, ending up raising a staggering $21,396 in 30 days. Last year’s fundraiser was spectacular, raising around $15k over a 9 month period, so to better that by such a margin is not only superb but truly humbling.
OSMI Guides for Promoting Mental Wellness in the Tech Workplace
Today we’re proud to share something OSMI has been hard at work creating for the greater tech community: Open Sourcing Mental Illness Mental Health in Tech handbooks. The three handbooks offer general guidance on Mental Wellness in the Workplace, Guidelines for Executives and HR Professionals, and Guidelines for Employees.
It should be noted that each of these resources are a work in progress, and each will continue to evolve as the standards for mental health support in professional settings evolves. Please, help us by sharing these resources and expanding our efforts to provide direction in creating supportive workplaces for those dealing with mental disorders.
Mental Health in Tech: Guidelines for Mental Wellness in the Workplace – Within this guide you will find an overview for the landscape of mental health support in tech today, as well as mental health in the workplace examples, guidelines for developing mental healthy policies, communication tips and more.
Mental Health in Tech: Guidelines for Executives and HR Professionals – This guide covers information on The Americans with Disabilities Act, EEOC Enforcement guidance, and suggestions for accommodating employees with mental health impairments.
Mental Health in Tech: Guidelines for Employees – This guide provides information on The Americans with Disabilities Act and enforcement guidance specifically for the employee, as well as suggestions for reasonable accommodations for mental health impairments and more.
NOTE: These documents were compiled by Open Sourcing Mental Illness contributors using WHO, EEOC, and other guidelines; these contributors are not attorneys and the Open Sourcing Mental Illness materials do not constitute legal advice of any type.
For more information on OSMI’s resources, visit OSMIhelp.org/resources, or to find out how you can help change the way we talk about mental health in tech go to OSMIhelp.org.
Yesterday I released the Mental Health in Tech Survey. My intent is to get an idea of how mental health is treated in the tech workplace. With this information, we should be better able to identify areas of need and address them. I’m particularly interested in the workplace, because I believe that making the workplace a safe place to discuss mental health issues will have the most impact on the tech/developer community.
In just the first day we had nearly 700 responses. This is pretty amazing, and I’m really excited about the information we can gather from this.
When things settle down a bit, I will try to make some pretty graphs and draw some conclusions about what tech companies can do to make their workplaces safe to discuss mental health. I’ll probably use much of it in my talks, and will release all data under a CC license.
I would like to strongly encourage everyone to share this survey with your colleagues. Send it to your team lead, your CTO, your CEO, and ask them to share it with everyone. Every response makes a difference. I want everyone’s experiences to be represented.
I am already aware that the survey doesn’t address self-employed folks well, and the questions are US-centric, because health coverage is typically tied to employment in the US. Please don’t let that dissuade you from taking the survey. You will not skew results or otherwise mess things up – I will account for these issues in the analysis.
Devpressed is a forum created by developer and mental health advocate Greg Bauges, specifically for developers and tech-types to talk about their struggles with mental illness.
Greg is also writing a book called “Developers and Depression”. Check it out!
