Mental health and security clearances: Addressing misperceptions and stigma

Leidos recently spearheaded research on the nexus of mental health and security clearances to better understand the extent to which there is a perception among security clearance holders and prospective applicants in the intelligence and national security space that seeking mental health support might jeopardize their clearance status.

The paper, Mental Health and Security Clearances: Addressing Misperceptions and Stigma, offers qualitative and quantitative data that examines the current state of the security clearance process. It also addresses perceptions among security clearance holders and prospective applicants, many of whom report anxieties that seeking support could jeopardize their clearance status.

Read this research report to learn more about how:

• A large majority of prospective security clearance applicants view seeking help for mental health issues positively and are willing to disclose their own mental health history as part of their background investigation.
• Despite there being less mental health stigma among individuals, there is a significant lack of trust and misunderstanding in how mental health issues are assessed during the security clearance process.
• Lack of transparency around how the security clearance process considers mental health history is the main obstacle to mitigating distrust and misconceptions. 
• There is a clear communication challenge when ensuring that changes to how mental health is addressed filter down throughout the clearance review process and to prospective talent and the current workforce.

Download the report     Read the press release