Abstract
Stress and mental health at work are the leading causes of long-term sickness absence in the UK, with chronically poor working conditions impacting employee physiological and psychological health. Social workers play a significant part in the fabric of UK society, but have one of the most stressful occupations in the country. The aim of this project was to work with UK social workers to co-develop, implement, and evaluate a series of smartphone-based mental health initiatives. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews and focus group and steering group discussions, was utilized to design the mental health and well-being interventions. Study efficacy was evaluated via a pre- and post-intervention survey and post-intervention semi-structured interviews. Interventions developed were psycho-educational, improved top-down and bottom-up communication, and provided access to a Vocational Rehabilitation Assistant for those struggling and at risk of sickness absence. Six months following dissemination, surveys demonstrated significant improvements in communication, and mean score improvements in four other working conditions. This project, therefore, demonstrates that co-developed initiatives can be positively impactful, despite post-intervention data collection being impacted by COVID-19. Future studies should build upon these findings and broaden the PAR approach nationally while taking a robust approach to evaluation.
Highlights
Employee well-being should be an important consideration for employees, employers, and policy makers alike [1]
This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods approach to the co-design, dissemination, and evaluation of a series of well-being initiatives for Child and Family social workers (C&FSWs) employed in seven local authorities (LA)
The app was developed by social workers, for social workers, in each of the seven LAs
Summary
Employee well-being should be an important consideration for employees, employers, and policy makers alike [1]. Work stress, depression, and anxiety are among the biggest reasons for both long- and short-term sickness absence in the United Kingdom (UK) [2]. Costs individuals in terms of psychological and physiological health and well-being [3]. It costs employers due to having high levels of burnout [4], turnover of intentions [1], and job satisfaction [5], among other things. Employee well-being should be a consideration for policy makers because research has demonstrated that patients in clinical settings have higher levels of morbidity and mortality, which have worsened employee well-being [6]. In the UK, Health and Social Care (H&SC) workers have among the highest levels of stress and mental health-related sickness of all occupations [3]
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