Bridging those troubled waters

Many people who have even a short period in hospital through mental illness lose their jobs. In one Bristol hospital, a survey showed that about 80% of people who had jobs on admission were unemployed a year later.1 This was not necessarily because they stayed in hospital for a long time. Most were never asked whether their job was being kept open for them, and it was just assumed by hospital staff that supporting a return to work or talking to employers about their employee's chances of recovery was not part of the job. Mo Hutchison gives a first hand account of her own recent experiences and her own unique "back to work" strategy, designed and tested by herself with some much‐valued help — and not a little scepticism from the hospital staff.