Building Workplaces Where Workers with Lived Mental Illness Experience Thrive: Flourish@Work
One Mind’s newest initiative, Flourish@Work, is helping employers understand and unlock the strengths of workers with lived experience of serious mental illness (SMI). Since debuting as a pilot program this spring, Flourish@Work has generated fresh research, real-world employer feedback, and a growing picture of what it actually takes for this talented, often overlooked workforce to thrive. Building on these early insights, One Mind Lived Experience is now developing a full Flourish@Work program, centered on Curriculum, Coaching, and Community, that will roll out as part of One Mind at Work‘s member programming in 2027.
Here’s a look at where the initiative stands, and where it’s headed next.
The Case for Flourish@Work
An estimated 15.4 million U.S. adults, roughly 6% of the population, report living with a serious mental illness. Many bring exactly the kind of skills employers say they want: persistence, agile thinking, strong pattern recognition, empathy, and loyalty. Yet a majority of workers with SMIs are not competitively employed, and those who are often report insufficient support, a gap that can quietly drive burnout, absenteeism, and rising healthcare costs.
Flourish@Work was built to close that gap, arming employers with the knowledge and, crucially, the familiarity needed to move past stigma and toward real support.
What Workers With SMIs Say They Actually Need
To ground the program in real experience, One Mind surveyed 148 workers with serious mental illness in 2025–2026. Four themes emerged clearly:
- Strong leadership is essential. A supportive supervisor is the single biggest factor respondents linked to workplace success, and seeing others with SMIs in leadership is a powerful signal that a workplace is truly supportive.
- What benefits one benefits many. Mental health-friendly policies help everyone, not just workers with SMIs, and workplaces that support other marginalized identities build extra trust with employees living with SMIs.
- Workplace accommodations cost minimally. The most-requested accommodation is also the cheapest: scheduling flexibility. Nearly 70% of respondents preferred hybrid work. Yet 80% weren’t confident their employer would actually honor an accommodation request if they asked.
- Knowledge is power. Stigma persists even among well-intentioned employers, including the false belief that workers with SMIs pose a greater risk of workplace violence. Closing that knowledge gap is core to Flourish@Work’s mission.
Read the full Flourish@Work Research Summary Report
Piloting a New Approach at the Global Forum
On May 19, 2026, One Mind debuted Flourish@Work programming at the 10th Annual One Mind at Work Global Forum in Napa, California. The pilot workshop brought employers face-to-face with the realities of working with an SMI, through Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Brandon Staglin’s own story of building a career while living with schizophrenia, firsthand accounts from Flourish@Work Storytellers, and a roleplay exercise that asked employers to advocate for a worker (or themselves) navigating an undisclosed health condition.
The results were measurable: employer confidence that workers with SMIs can thrive when properly supported rose by 23%, and belief in the importance of safe disclosure grew by 28%. Just as notably, participants began drawing their own connections between workplace thriving and recovery, challenging the stigmatizing idea that “mental illness” and “mental wellness” are mutually exclusive.
The pilot also pointed to what’s next: more time with Storytellers, a larger and more diverse discussion group, and a stronger throughline connecting employment itself to recovery.
Read the full pilot recap: “Strengths AI Cannot Match”
No One Experience Is the Same
Building on this research, One Mind Lived Experience published Intersecting Identities at Work in July 2026, a closer look at how other marginalized identities, including disability, race, justice-involvement, and housing insecurity, intersect with the experience of living with an SMI.
The findings reinforce a central idea: workers with intersecting identities aren’t just navigating additional barriers, they bring additional strengths, from novel problem-solving perspectives to deep resilience and community-building skills. Respondents again pointed to representation in leadership as pivotal, describing a pull toward “leaders who are like them” for mentorship and guidance. And while every worker’s background and needs are different, the report points to a universal foundation for support: curiosity, openness, and humility from employers willing to learn without assuming they already understand.
Read the full report: “Intersecting Identities at Work”
What’s Next for Flourish@Work
Together, these three pieces of work tell a consistent story: workers with lived experience of serious mental illness bring strengths that are too often left untapped, and the fixes—flexibility, informed leadership, community, and a willingness to listen—are more accessible than many employers assume.
Building on these lessons, leaders from the One Mind Lived Experience Council and One Mind at Work are now working to develop the full Flourish@Work program, a three-part model of Curriculum, Coaching, and Community, to be integrated into One Mind at Work member programming in 2027.
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