In the rush to become more inclusive, many employers are finally beginning to talk about neurodiversity. But one common and well-intentioned mistake continues to blur the conversation: confusing neurodivergence with mental health.

You’ll often see this in corporate messaging, training modules, or internal policies that group neurodiversity under the mental health umbrella. While both are vital components of employee wellbeing, they are not the same, and treating them as if they are can do more harm than good.

If you work in HR, learning and development, or people management, it’s essential to understand the difference. This blog will explain why it matters and what your organisation can do to support neurodivergent employees in the right way.

What Is Neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity is the natural variation in how people’s brains process information, communicate, and interact with the world. It includes conditions such as:

• Autism

• ADHD

• Dyslexia

• Dyspraxia

• Tourette Syndrome

• Dyscalculia

Neurodivergent people experience the world in ways that may differ from neurotypical expectations. This can affect communication, sensory processing, attention, memory, learning, or executive function. Crucially, these are developmental or neurological differences, not mental health conditions.

What Is Mental Health?

Mental health refers to a person’s emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how they handle stress, relate to others, and make decisions. Mental health conditions may include:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Bipolar disorder

• PTSD

• Eating disorders

These conditions can be short-term or long-term, and they may come and go over a person’s lifetime.

While neurodivergent people can also have mental health conditions, especially if they’ve experienced trauma, misunderstanding, or exclusion, the two are not interchangeable.

Why This Distinction Matters for Employers

When neurodiversity is folded into mental health policy, several issues arise:

1. The wrong kind of support is offered

Mental health interventions like Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), counselling, or stress management sessions can be helpful. But they won’t address challenges like executive function difficulties, sensory sensitivities, or the need for clear communication.

A dyslexic employee who needs text-to-speech software doesn’t benefit from a meditation app. An autistic employee who finds open-plan offices overwhelming doesn’t need resilience training, they need an environmental adjustment.

2. It frames neurodivergence as a problem to be fixed

When neurodivergent identities are treated as illnesses, it sends a subtle but harmful message: that being neurodivergent is a flaw or weakness. This undermines the idea of neurodiversity as a valuable form of difference.

Instead of supporting someone’s strengths, it may lead managers to assume they are struggling or unwell, even when they’re simply experiencing or expressing things differently.

3. It creates legal and compliance risks

In the UK, neurodivergent conditions like autism and ADHD are often considered disabilities under the Equality Act 2010. This means employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments.

Relying solely on mental health initiatives or voluntary wellbeing programmes can mean your organisation is failing to meet its legal obligations, especially if reasonable adjustments aren’t offered as standard.

Real-World Example

Consider this scenario:

Sophie has ADHD. She excels in her role but struggles with back-to-back meetings and written instructions that lack clarity. Her manager notices she seems “stressed” and refers her to an EAP.

The EAP offers counselling and mindfulness tips. Sophie attends once but finds it unhelpful. What she actually needed was:

• Fewer meetings

• Verbal clarification of key tasks

• A shared task management system

Because her needs were framed as stress or burnout, the wrong tools were applied. Sophie ends up feeling unsupported and misunderstood, and her performance dips as a result.

So What Should HR Do Instead?

1. Develop separate but connected strategies

Yes, neurodivergence and mental health can overlap. But your approach should treat them as distinct areas of employee experience.

• Your neurodiversity strategy should focus on reasonable adjustments, inclusive communication, training for managers, and recruitment practices.

• Your mental health strategy should focus on access to therapy, support during crisis, psychological safety, and emotional wellbeing.

Both are essential, but they need different tools.

2. Train your managers on the difference

Most performance issues, misunderstandings, or complaints arise at line manager level. Equip managers to understand that neurodivergent employees may:

• Need different communication styles

• Have fluctuating executive function

• Thrive with predictability and structure

This is not the same as being unwell. And it doesn’t mean lower expectations, it means different ways of working. Explore neurodiversity training with Enna here.

3. Offer reasonable adjustments proactively

Don’t wait for your employees to request adjustments. Build inclusive practices into your team and culture from the start. For example:

• Use multiple communication methods (written, verbal, visual)

• Record meetings or provide summaries

• Let people plan their own workday structure where possible

• Ask, “How can I support you to do your best work?” instead of “Are you okay?”

4. Be clear in policies and messaging

Review your HR documents, intranet pages, and internal campaigns. Are you lumping neurodiversity into mental health without clear definitions?

A better approach might be:

“We’re committed to supporting both mental health and neurodiversity at work. We recognise that not all needs are the same. Our wellbeing programme offers mental health support, while our inclusion strategy focuses on creating a neuroinclusive environment where everyone can thrive.”

Final Thoughts

Grouping neurodiversity and mental health together might seem harmless, even progressive. But for neurodivergent employees, it can feel like being misunderstood, mislabelled, or even erased.

To build a truly inclusive workplace, HR teams must be confident in the difference. That’s how we move from generic wellbeing messages to real inclusion and from assumptions to impact.

Start by recognising what neurodivergent employees actually need. Then embed those needs into your strategy, culture, and everyday leadership.

Because being inclusive isn’t about using the right words. It’s about taking the right actions.

Need help building your neurodiversity strategy?
Enna offers audits, manager training, recruitment reviews and policy support to help you create a neuroinclusive workplace that works for everyone. Learn more at enna.org.