Abstract
BackgroundMental health problems are prevalent and costly in working populations. Workplace interventions to address common mental health problems have evolved relatively independently along three main threads or disciplinary traditions: medicine, public health, and psychology. In this Debate piece, we argue that these three threads need to be integrated to optimise the prevention of mental health problems in working populations.DiscussionTo realise the greatest population mental health benefits, workplace mental health intervention needs to comprehensively 1) protect mental health by reducing work–related risk factors for mental health problems; 2) promote mental health by developing the positive aspects of work as well as worker strengths and positive capacities; and 3) address mental health problems among working people regardless of cause. We outline the evidence supporting such an integrated intervention approach and consider the research agenda and policy developments needed to move towards this goal, and propose the notion of integrated workplace mental health literacy.SummaryAn integrated approach to workplace mental health combines the strengths of medicine, public health, and psychology, and has the potential to optimise both the prevention and management of mental health problems in the workplace.
Highlights
Mental health problems are prevalent and costly in working populations
Summary: An integrated approach to workplace mental health combines the strengths of medicine, public health, and psychology, and has the potential to optimise both the prevention and management of mental health problems in the workplace
Mental health problems are common in the working population, and represent a growing concern, with potential impacts on workers, organisations, workplace health and compensation authorities, and social welfare systems [1]
Summary
What is the potential for preventing and managing this large and complex burden of mental health problems in the working population? The identification of modifiable risk factors implies potential preventability, but this needs to be demonstrated through intervention studies. While the protective focus of the first thread aims to identify and address factors that can undermine the mental health of employees – and encourages employers to fulfil their responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment, the overall goal of the second thread is to complement the risk reduction approach by promoting those characteristics that can strengthen individual and organisational health and can lead to high levels of positive wellbeing To some extent this complementarity is already apparent; for example, understanding of the importance of job control has evolved from two sides of the same coin.
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