Background: Work is important for mental health but we are only just beginning to understand why so few people with psychosis in the UK work.
Aims: To identify the opinions of a purposive sample of patients with psychosis on themes related to employment.
Method: A thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews with people with schizophrenia or bipolar affective disorder.
Results: Participants identified a range of advantages to working but also expressed substantial doubts. Symptoms, medication and potential damage to health are the problems that people believe affect their ability to work. Most people would not tell their employers about their illness because they feared discrimination during the selection process, but believed it could help their chances of retaining a job if employers knew. A number reported a lack of encouragement to work from mental health professionals and not enough helpful employment services.
Conclusions: Although most people want to work, given the pressures they face some may choose not to. Barriers that people face are both internal and external and these interact.
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