We Are Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and Neglect

A study was conducted by David Zielinski, Ph.D. at NIMH which showed that the long-term impacts of childhood maltreatment include higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and use of social services in adulthood.[1] He evaluated data on childhood maltreatment and socioeconomic well-being from the NIMH-funded National Comorbidity Survey (NCS)

I have written several times about how the American With Disabilities Act needs to be strengthened to protect those of us with mental illnesses. Now I want to bring your attention to a tactic that many corporations use to distant themselves even further from working with survivors.

In 1990 Congress enacted groundbreaking legislation protecting the rights of disabled workers. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) put employers on notice that they could no longer fire disabled employees willy-nilly just because they couldn’t keep up with their healthy co-workers. Reasonable accommodations had to be provided to help level the playing field.

“You are no different than someone who has had a heart attack. I have no empathy and very little sympathy. This is a business.” Those were my manager’s comments when I told her I was suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) and needed her assistance.