Disclosure of Mental Health Status to Employers in a Healthcare Context

Abstract

People suffering from mental health conditions are often unwilling to reveal their status and this includes health professionals. They may wrestle with the pros and cons of revealing their health status to their employer in particular as they seek to reconcile personal privacy with professional duty. There is no simple, clear consensus as to whether they have a moral duty to share the information voluntarily or explicitly to share it with the employer. Additionally, there is a concern as to whether a degree of non-disclosure is justifiable to protect the privacy of health care professionals in some circumstances. Decisions surrounding the disclosure of a mental health problem are nuanced and may require that competing needs and values be reconciled. Although self-declared mental health status is an intrinsic moral good, the healthcare professional needs to feel confident and ready to come forward.

Keywords: disclosure; ethics; health professionals; mental health; status.