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Mental health issues can manifest through a range of symptoms, such as mild anxiety or depression through to severe depression or suicidal thoughts. People may also experience different mental health issues at different times, with issues triggered by a variety of causes.
As the UK National Alliance on Mental Illness states, ‘Mental illnesses are not a condition that people choose to have or not have’ and, accordingly, ‘no one should have to feel ashamed of this condition any more than any other medical condition’.
Both men and women can suffer from poor mental health, although as pointed out by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) , ‘the prevalence of mental illnesses in men is often lower than women’. The NIMH also observes, however, that ‘men with mental illnesses are also less likely to have received mental health treatment than women in the past year’. Notably, men are more likely to die by suicide than women. This is significant due to the higher proportion of men working in the nuclear industry and the higher percentage of male insiders than female, (82% vs 18%), as observed by the UK’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).
Male mental health issues may be exacerbated by perceptions that addressing emotional difficulties is ‘unmanly,’ and therefore men may be less adept at recognising mental health issues. According to the organisation Help Guide, men are ‘more likely to deny their feelings, hide them from himself and others, or try to mask them with other behaviours’. This may be compounded where mental health issues may disqualify staff from certain roles.
There have been cases of poor mental health featuring in the misuse or misappropriation of nuclear and radiological material. Poor mental health was also a key factor in the 2001 Anthrax attacks in the US where the perpetrator Dr Bruce E. Ivins was implicated in the mailing of anthrax spores. Indeed, this issue has featured in several other prominent non-CBRN related insider incidents, including the March 2003 attack on the US military base in Kuwait by Hasan Akbar, the theft and publication of classified US diplomatic cables by Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning in 2010, and the Washington Navy Yard shooting by Aaron Alexis in September 2013.
Though not directly addressed by the IAEA , mental health awareness underpins many of the characteristics of nuclear security culture including those in management systems (work environment / training and qualification), behaviours (management oversight / teamwork and cooperation / vigilance) and principles for guiding decisions and behaviour (commitment and responsibility).
Further Reading:
‘Facts and Myths’, website of National Alliance on Mental Illness
