Wednesday, 23 April 2014

A sample of cross-cultural approaches to mental health policy in education and employment.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has researched employment policies, mental health and how various societies manage the integration of education and employment for their citizens (http://www.oecd.org/health/theoecdmentalhealthandworkproject.htm). Below, I include quoted excerpts that summarize their recommendations for Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom; and later in 2014, Australia, Austria, Netherlands will follow.
 

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.
The OECD recommends that Denmark:
 
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





 





No comments:

Post a Comment