Hidden Disabilities and Mental Health: Awareness at Work

3 min readSep 13, 2023

A training course on identifying and approaching people or avoiding people in severe mental distress, committing acts of violence or other situations threatening any staff member working as a handyperson conducting general repairs.

Furthermore, it is essential to highlight that members of the organisation employees are also entitled to protection from acts of violence, according to the Government Health and Safety Executive.

Any employer must balance the needs of their employees, the safety of people in distress, and against any other physical and financial costs to our staff members and others.

To mitigate any harm to any handyperson or people with a wide range of disabilities due to old age, old age illnesses or people with hidden disabilities such as ADHD, autistic spectrum or other disabilities that are not visible.

Hidden Disabilities

Hidden disabilities are very unclear to a layperson.

Staff members will need to have some basic information on how to conduct their behaviours around vulnerable people and how to react appropriately around violent situations to de-escalate any situation, as well as to understand the appropriate contact points for any staff member by contacting a trained professional so the situation can be resolved by a trained health professional or members of law enforcement.

Suppose staff members work in old folk homes, particularly around older people. In that case, contacting their primary carers will be beneficial in case of any emotional distress rather than immediately phoning the police.

People who are vulnerable and at risk of self-harm are better off seeing a trained medical or mental health professional, and contact numbers should be made available to companies and said employees working at the site.

A systematic approach could also be created where an understanding of the hidden disabilities and illnesses of the place a handyperson will be conducting their work.

This kind of training can be done simply as a PowerPoint presentation.

Hence, they know what type of behaviour to exhibit and how they should approach people who have disabilities and are neurodivergent.

A basic example is a person on the autistic spectrum.

A typical response from a person with this neurodivergent is that they don’t like eye contact or physical touch and may find it incredibly distressing to hold down a conversation.

Furthermore, people with this disability can sometimes be emotionally and socially immature to their perceived physical age, and this can cause significant conflict or a distressing situation that can be resolved with some basic information about autism to avoid misunderstandings and conflict resolutions.

The final point needs to be made that staff members are not vigilantes or professional social workers; they must seek out professional assistance and avoid any danger to themselves in any distressful situation.