From Rabble: The regulatory body for social workers and social service workers in Ontario — the Ontario College for Social Workers and Social Service Workers — is now requiring all social work professionals to disclose whether they have been given a psychiatric diagnosis.
“The critical point to keep in mind here is that, whatever credence you do or do not afford the concept, ‘mental illness’ has nothing to do with safety, despite the regulatory bodies so naming it. There is no proof whatsoever that professionals with psychiatric diagnoses are any less safe than any other professional. By the same token, despite the facile conflation of ‘mentally ill’ with ‘incompetence,’ it has nothing to do competence. Someone with a psychiatric diagnosis may or may not be incompetent, just as any other professional may or may not be. What we are witnessing in short is prejudice and oppression pure and simple. We are witnessing ableism. We are witnessing ‘sanism.’ We are likewise seeing incredible short-sightedness — for the truth of the matter is that people in touch with their own personal difficulties have a tendency to be better helping professionals — not worse ones.”
