WHO statistics suggest two to three per cent of a population live with bipolar, which translates into 137,000 people in Scotland. ‘That is not much less than the population of Dundee,’
HELEN COMPSON learned from a small charity that offers a huge amount of support.
If there is one message Bipolar Scotland wants to get across to businesses, it is this: an employee with the disorder will be just as effective as the person sitting next to them.
The charity’s chief executive, Alison Cairn, is unequivocal: “Yes, this is a serious mental illness, but it can be controlled and there is no reason an employee with bipolar can’t be effective in the work place.
“Indeed, I have found over the years that people go out of their way to prove they can do the job – they will give more than the person next to them.”
The support that person is able to access is key to maintaining their wellbeing though and this is where an employer can play as much of a part as Bipolar Scotland.
The charity, which has a network of support groups covering the country, plans to train up its first Mental Health First Aiders in what will be an extension to the information, advice and help it already provides.
Alison, who happens to hail from a human resources background, says it is a step companies at large should consider.
“It’s quite a big thing now,” she said. “Quite a lot of businesses are beginning to train up and put in place Mental Health First Aiders.
“It is a very worthwhile move, not least because bipolar is the condition with the highest rate of suicides attached.
“At the heart of the matter for employers is how do you look after your staff both physically and mentally?”
A good starting point for anybody seeking more information is Bipolar Scotland’s own website.
The charity was established in 1992 by a GP who is herself bipolar. She originally sought help from a predominantly London-based organisation that at the time had a support group in Glasgow.
She said later it had saved her life.
Alison said: “When she went to her first meeting, she’d said ‘things like this don’t happen to people like me’, and someone had replied, ‘no, me neither’.”
The GP raised the funds to establish Bipolar Scotland’s first group and the charity grew from there.
The work of the six members of staff it has now is supplemented by a legion of volunteers.
“Support groups are the core of what we do,” said Alison. “We have 16 groups throughout the country, run by volunteer facilitators.”
Family members and carers are welcome to attend too. “That often happens,” she said. “A loved one will have the condition and they will come along to seek support and then take the message home.”
The charity currently has around 400 members and 2000 followers on Facebook, so when you consider that 137,000 estimate, it has many more people to reach in Scotland.
But perhaps the silver lining of these challenging times is that, suddenly, its support groups are even more accessible.
Within two days of the Covid lockdown being announced, they were online. As luck would have it, last year the team received funding to pilot a young people’s group online and so they already had the format in place.
One of the most important services Bipolar Scotland offers today is teaching people how to manage their condition themselves, via a three-day training course that was devised in-house.
Unique in its specific tailoring, the course is designed to be delivered by someone who is themselves living with bipolar disorder, ensuring maximum empathy for maximum effect.
A modular course, while it focuses to all intents and purposes on the present and the future, it does get participants thinking about the past, said Alison. “The starting point is what is going on in people’s lives now and how the illness has affected them, but that does get them thinking about the past and about episodes and warning signs they might not necessarily have linked with their condition at the time.
“After the course, they go back to their normal lives more aware of the impact it is having and what they can do to control it.”
