There was a writeup in the second most recent Beanscene about madcap. It is a great thing they are doing getting people with mental illness to gain employment. There are a lot of people who have mild to moderate mental illness that you would never know, and people hide it to "fit in", and hiding behind who you are really can mess you up further emotionally (and be physically draining as well). I fix some of the equipment at a local endeavour foundation where they do outsourced packaging of herbs/spices etc for companies, and they have people with a whole range of very serious mental illness (Downs syndrome etc). It's great to give these people a sense of worth, and a place in the community, and those who have employment are MUCH happier and healthier. Those at Madcap I suspect are not on that scale of mental illness, but sometimes, for those trying to make it in the "real world" while suffering from severe depression, anxiety etc really need somewhere that they can feel like they don't have to make excuses for their ailments - they don't have to fake a cold because they can't face the world in the morning. They know they can ring up work, and they will understand. This kind of understanding in ALL workplaces would go a long way.
