• Angela O’Connor is trying to help her son back into the workforce after he suffered a mental illness. Photo by Jeremy Dixon

For Angela O’Connor, watching her son wile away the hours watching videos and smoking cigarettes is heartbreaking.

The 22-year-old’s drug-induced psychosis is under control thanks to medication, but his employment agency Intework is having no luck finding him a job.

“It’s hard for us as parents, knowing he is capable of doing something,” Ms O’Connor said.

She’s so concerned his inactivity will lead to further social isolation and hamper his recovery that the Success resident contacted the Herald hoping a kind-hearted employer would read the story and offer a job.

“He has quirks, so maybe not something that involves dealing with customers,” Ms O’Connor said. She says he picked up a forklift driver’s ticket when he was 18 and has helped his father in his courier business.

Ms O’Connor was aware of the shake-up of the disability sector, as her son had been with Ruah before it lost its contracts. He’s happy with Intework, but she says under the new regime he’s virtually punished for having a mental illness rather than a disability.

“In some ways he’d have a better chance of getting work if he had Down’s syndrome or something like that,” she said.

Intework program manager Don Campbell says it can be a struggle convincing employers to take on people with a mental illness.

“Some of the ‘walk on the other side of the road, you might catch it’ attitudes to mental health have gone, but employers do think of it as taking a bit of a risk,” he says.

“But they don’t realise that we work with the employee.

“We come down a couple of times a week and make sure everything’s going well. We can get involved when needed.”

But he says a lot of employers wouldn’t even know Intework was quietly acting as a backstop because the client didn’t want to divulge their mental illness.

Disclosure is a tricky issue, one he says is discussed and sorted at a first interview with a potential client.

On one hand it can ruin someone’s chances of getting a job, but on the other if the employer is aware and sympathetic they can hold onto a job if someone suffers a relapse and needs time off.

Mr Campbell says Intework aims to match clients to jobs, rather than the other way round, as they’re keen to make sure people are in a suitable position and happy there.

“Most people are blown away by the service we provide.”

That often extends to something as simple as buying someone a pair of workboots for their first day on the job.

“It’s so they can walk in on day one and be the same as everyone else, but we get not a cent from the government for that sort of thing,” he said.

Kind-hearted bosses can contact Ms O’Connor on 0407 885 406.

by STEVE GRANT