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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yikes pp.
You don't sound ready to be someone's employer.[/quote]

I don't know if I am the PP to whom you are referring but I already am "someone's employer" - over 45 people in fact - including a nanny.  And while I would hire someone with a mental illness for a job in my company, I would not hire someone with a mental illness to be my child's nanny.  End of discussion.  [/quote]

+1.

I realize that this is a catch-22: if you don't disclose a condition, you can't request reasonable accommodations, and you may lose your job for performance issues that could be explained if NF knew your condition. But disclose it, and probably most NFs won't hire you.

I'm not going to hire anyone with a chronic medical condition if I know about it, unless it has been under control for years, and the person can assure me that it has literally no effect on their ability to show up on time, stay all day, and do the job. I feel like anyone in that situation wouldn't think to disclose it, because it doesn't matter. Anyone who does feel the need to disclose it, probably knows she'll need special consideration (or might need).

As a PP said, you are the sole employee, tasked with caring for people too young to take care of themselves if you have an attack of whatever it is. Go work somewhere where a sudden emergency or decompensation won't  mean that there's no one to cover.[/quote]

What kind of sudden decompensation do you think you see with depression?  Schizophrenia?  Mania?  Alcohol abuse?  These things don't happen overnight.   It's not like a seizure disorder.[/quote]

First of all, at least one of the nannies posting here is bipolar. So, yes, I worry about mania, delusions, even hallucinations. Anyone who has lived with someone with bipolar disorder knows the meds don't always work all the time.

Another nanny takes a "low dose" of a bezodiazepine every day. I am not allowed to drug test her or ask her for medical records that prove her dose is low enough not to affect reflexes or cognition. So, yes, I worry about someone on a mood- and cognition-altering substance carrying, driving, and watching my child in the water, near streets, or in other potentially dangerous situations. I mean, I can ask for those things, but I'm sure you'd agree with that about as much as you agree with me not hiring her in the first place.

But even with your garden-variety depression, one of the problems is that a nanny works with children. She sees other adults sporadically during the week. Some don't see any other adults regularly at all during the workday. MB and DB see her for a little while in the AM, and probably even less in the PM, time spent rushing around getting ready for work or handing over care. I'm not going to notice my nanny getting quieter or less active, or that she seems sad or disconnected. I will see none of those gradual signs of a worsening depression. Meanwhile, she may be barely interacting with my child, sleeping on the sofa, not taking my child out, or otherwise doing very little actual nannying. This is the best case scenario of an unrecognized worsening depression. Worst case, she starts self-harming behavior.

Someone with true clinical depression does not need to be working in isolation with sole care for a child. This is true for a parent or a caregiver. It's a recipe for disaster for the one suffering from depression and for potential tragedy for the child.

Now, if you're like a lot of Americans who take anti-depressants just because you find life a little hard, then just keep it to yourself when you apply for my job, I'll never find out, and it won't matter.[/quote]

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