But where is the line drawn? Depression is okay, but what about bipolar? Multiple personality disorder? Schizophrenia? What exactly does the MMPI test for? Also... Say you receive treatment whether therapy or medication what is the downtime? A week? A month? Until you can demonstrate stability? Who determines what is stability? I'm sure much of this has already been researched and tested but I'm not familiar with it... Maybe others here are?
Instead of focusing on where to draw the line, what if we focused on where to start. The undertaking of this will be a mountain, no doubt.
People with these "issues" are not lining up to leave their jobs for the sake of NAS safety. People do not wake up depressed one day. The slow onset of depression leads to them thinking they are fine to control, and continue; much the same as the boiling frog theory. Next thing you know, there's a jet in a nose-dive outside of Houston...or a 777 lost in the Indian Ocean...(but that last one doesn't matter because it wasn't in the U.S.)
I like your idea about teaming up with the other aviation unions, finding minimal agreed upon common ground and working from there. Pilots do not want to be controlled by untreated controllers, and I certainly don't want to be strapped in a jet with an untreated depressed pilot behind a double locked door. (I make it seem like this is an epidemic).
Maybe they open the door to those with diagnosed depression. Study that, figure out that undertaking and in 3-5 years expand on the other mental health issues you have listed above (but those are admittedly difficult to work around). As for those listed, depression is far more prevalent across all demographics, 10x more so than schizo, bi-polar, etc.
It's also the leading cause to suicide.
Do I think any and everyone should be able to fly 400 people across the pond, hell no; but that's where we work on drawing the line.
Getting back to the OP: the shift work, shitty quality of life, sometimes toxic work environments, no leave available, etc. Those are facility by facility issues that can be worked out. Causal factors? Absolutely. I don't think shoving pills down, or buying everyone a puppy is always the answer. But allowing avenues for treatment is certainly a starting point. Depression is treatable, and it's temporary (99% of the time). In the small cases where it is not, maybe that's where a new career or desk jockey position within the agency is in line. There needs to be an end goal of allowing controllers to get help, and return to work in a reasonable time. Sad to say, but depression is becoming a societal norm.
Things to think about:
Are you willing to take a 20% pay cut because you are only working 32 hours now?
Are you willing to subject yourself to bi annual mental health examinations, which will wildly vary by service area, district etc?
Are you willing to have a co worker mention you seem a little off or are having problems at home and lose your medical for 3 months pending therapy?
Are you willing to work even shorter staffed because it will be that much more difficult to hire and retain employees with rigid mental health screenings?
Be careful what you wish for. NATCA has to pick their battles and this one fill be a very difficult uphill battle with some possible heavy downsides.
Fun (little known) fact: Many employers will consider 32 hours full time with benny's.
Are you willing to have a co-worker have a major operational error, or worse, kill themselves? leaving you...guess what....short staffed.
Difficult to hire? Do you realize the percentage of todays youth who are on meds, and have depression? It's staggering. We already have the pre-employment mental health screens. This is about people within the system, developing symptoms (due to the nature of the work), and letting them get the proper help/treatment. If anything, this will lead to better recruitment in the future.