Safety Month: Workplace Violence and Mental Illness

In this National Safety Month of June, workplace violence is a topic of concern. About 2 million employees are affected by workplace violence every year, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Mohinder Goomar, a retired physician and author of It’s Just My Opinion, says that mental illness frequently is associated with a violent incident at work.

“Because diagnosis and treatment of mental illness hasn’t progressed much in recent decades, we need to encourage lay people to be vigilant toward those expressing tendencies that indicate the potential for violence due to mental illness,” says Goomar, who has suffered with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Goomar advises employees to be vigilant about certain personalities in the workplace:

*People who feel marginalized or bullied. Bullying can be occurring at home or online; it doesn’t have to be happening at work.

*People who feel victimized and may justify violence as a way to get even.

*People who indicate a sense of paranoia and may have a history of reacting violently to a situation that other people would not find threatening.

*Anyone who quickly resorts to filing lawsuits.

Goomar believes that much workplace violence goes unreported. If an incident occurs at your salon, reporting it may help get the person needed mental health help.