The OECD recommends to Belgium to:
• Further integrate children and students with special needs in
mainstream education and improve the transition to employment.
• Rigorously implement and monitor employers’ obligations with
respect to psychosocial problems and increase sanctions for noncompliance.
• Systematically involve occupational health specialists in the
retention and reintegration of sick employees.
• Systematise the co-operation between mutualities and public
employment services.
• Develop employment-oriented mental health care and experiment
with ways to integrate health and employment services.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: BELGIUM © OECD 2013
Danish policy makers see the need for stronger action to
prevent people from dropping out of the labour market due to mental illness
and help those with a mental disorder to find sustainable jobs. Denmark is in
a good position to tackle the challenges of mental ill-health, as it can build
upon a number of system strengths. These include, for example, a good
municipal structure for following up on youth at risk as well as for providing
employment services to everyone in need of help. It also has an accessible
health system that widely reimburses psychological therapies. Nevertheless,
change is needed in order to improve the situation significantly. Changes
should include a better implementation of existing regulations and more
generally a stronger focus on mental health in current health, social and
labour market policies and ongoing welfare reforms.
Assure that ongoing social and labour market reforms, such as the
reform of the scheme of subsidised flexjobs, will deliver also for
people with a mental disorder.
Minimise school dropout and improve the transition to secondary
education and employment for adolescents with a mental illness.
Tackle mental ill-health in the workplace with a focus on people
facing performance problems but not yet taking relevant sick leave.
Aim to identify widespread mental health problems among clients
of municipal job centres, and address these problems with a range of
both health and targeted employment interventions.
Improve work-capacity assessments for disability benefit eligibility
including an identification of needs, especially for claimants with a
mental disorder, and introduce periodic reassessments.
Develop employment-oriented mental health care, and experiment
with ways to integrate health and employment services.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: DENMARK © OECD 2013
The OECD recommends to Norway to:
Take action to avoid sickness absence of workers with mental
health problems as much as possible and instead solve the
problems at the workplace.
• Expand the Employment Support Centres of NAV to fill the wide
gap between general prevention and rehabilitation by introducing
and expanding early intervention measures.
• Stop the fragmentation of services in mental health care and
rehabilitation and the disconnection between treating physicians
and NAV by developing integrated support models.
• Minimise school dropout and improve the transition to employment
by defining clear responsibilities for on-going individual follow-up
for students at risk.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: NORWAY © OECD 2013
The OECD recommends to Sweden to:
Increase resources available for school health services to identify
and provide support to pupils with mental health problems early on.
Provide adequate support to early school leavers and NEET with
mental health problems to promote their transition into higher
education and employment.
Reform the disability benefit scheme for those aged 19-29 who tend
to access the system with a mental illness, with much greater focus
on active measures to avoid an early exit from the labour market.
Provide greater support to small employers to retain workers with
mental health problems; to prevent them from moving onto sickness
benefits; and to reintegrate sick employees.
Ensure that adequate employment and health services are given to
sickness benefit recipients with mental health problems at an early
stage of the sickness spell to facilitate their rapid return to work.
Develop employment-oriented mental health care and experiment
with ways to integrate health and employment services.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: SWEDEN © OECD 2013
The OECD recommends that Swiss policy makers:
• Strengthen the prevention and management of sickness absences at
the workplace in order to foster greater job retention.
• Move the disability benefit system closer to the work sphere with a
focus on the role of employers and workplace-oriented early
interventions.
• Enhance the capacity of employment services and social welfare
offices to deal with the frequent mental health problems of their
clients.
• Broaden inter-institutional co-operation by including the health
system as an equal partner, building networks with employers and
strengthening the financial incentives to co-operate for the main
actors.
• Assure that the well-resourced mental health system delivers better
employment outcomes also by promoting a better allocation of
resources toward adequate doctor training and treatment practice
with an employment focus.
• Place a greater emphasis of the education policy on ensuring that
students with mental health problems do not leave the education
system early as a result of school drop-out or through the take-up
of a disability benefit.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: SWITZERLAND © OECD 2014
The OECD recommends that policy makers in the United Kingdom:
• Assure that reforms underway to improve intervention in the early
phase of a sickness spell, in order to avoid the transition from
sickness into disability benefit (Employment and Support
Allowance), are implemented effectively.
• Increase the attention to mental health and its impact on
employability and work capacity in all parts of the welfare system,
including Employment Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance
and the new Universal Credit.
• Further refine the outcome payments for employment service
providers to promote better employment outcomes for the most
disadvantaged customers.
• Invest in active labour market programmes more generally to be
able to provide adequate support for clients with mental health
problems.
• Build on recently improved integration of health and employment
services to make sure that successful pilot approaches are widely
available.
• Further expand access to psychological therapies for those with a
common mental disorder and boost mental-health knowledge of
general practitioners who play a key role in the UK health and
benefit system.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: UNITED KINGDOM © OECD 2014
