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The OECD "Mental Health and Work Project"
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Released December 2011
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Mental illness is a growing problem in society and is increasingly affecting productivity and well-being in the workplace, says OECD.
Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health and Work says that one in five workers suffer from a mental illness, such as depression or anxiety, and many are struggling to cope.
The report challenges some of the myths around mental health and concludes that policymakers need to look for new solutions. Most people with a mental disorder work, with employment rates of between 55% to 70%, about 10 to 15 percentage points lower than for people without disorders.
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Key figures & Data
| Figure 1.2 |
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The prevalence of mental disorders varies with age, gender and level of education
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| Figure 1.3 |
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People with a mental disorder face a considerable employment disadvantage
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| Figure 1.4 |
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People with a mental disorder have lower incomes and a much larger poverty risk
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| Figure 2.4 |
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Unemployment rates are much higher for people with a mental disorder
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| Figure 2.16 |
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Job strain increases significantly the chances of having a mental disorder
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| Figure 2.19 |
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Absenteeism and presenteeism both increase sharply with poorer mental health
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| Figure 2.22 |
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Severe mental disorders influence sickness absence days more than any other variable
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| Figure 3.4 |
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Treatment rates are extremely low among young adults and gradually increase with age
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| Figure 3.11 |
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Medication is most frequent in the United Kingdom and psychotherapy in Sweden
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| Figure 3.14 |
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The opportunity to seek specialist treatment varies considerably across countries
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| Figure 4.3 |
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New disability benefit claims for mental disorders are increasing but not in all cases
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| Figure 4.5 |
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Affective and neurotic disorders dominate in mental health diagnoses
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| Figure 4.12 |
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Many people with a mental disorder receive unemployment benefit or social assistance
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| Figure 5.1 |
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Psychosomatic complaints among children are higher for girls and increase with age
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| Figure 5.6 |
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People with mental health problems are more likely to stop full-time education early
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| Figure 5.8 |
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By age 20, more youth who had a mental health problem at age 18 have left education
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Meetings
- 12-13 December 2011: Conference on "Reconciling Mental Health and Work". Presentation by Mr. John Martin, Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD. Briefing Sessions: One (Workplace Interventions - Balancing Responsibilities and Supports), Two (The Transition from Education into the Labour Market), Three (Assessment, Identification and Profiling in the Benefit System) and Four (The Employment Responsibility of the Mental Health System).
- 26-28th April 2010: The follow-up project on “Disability and Work: Challenges for Labour Market Inclusion of People with Mental Illness” was launched with an Expert Meeting at the OECD headquarters in Paris; agenda and issues paper for the meeting are now available.
- 14-15th May 2009: The High-Level Forum website on "Sickness, Disability and Work: addressing Policy Challenges in OECD countries" is online for you to consult the background document, selection of data, see who attended and the press release.
Publications
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- Opening remarks from Aart de Geus at the press conference in London
- Policy Paper: Improving social and labour market integration of people with disability
- Table of contents and list of tables and charts (Tables and charts (.xls) by chapter: one two 3-4-5 (.zip)
- Country Notes - Key findings and policy challenges:
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States
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Transforming Disability into Ability, published in 2003, provides a systematic analysis of a wide array of labour market and social protection programmes aimed at people with disabilities.
Examining the relationship between policies and outcomes across 20 OECD countries, it highlights the dilemmas of disability policy and identified successful policy elements.
It concludes that a promising new disability policy approach should move closer to the philosophy of unemployment programmes, with a focus on activation, tailored early intervention, work incentives and mutual obligations.
- see also a selection of tables and charts.
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Further Reading
- April 2008: Modernising Sickness and Disability Policy. The ongoing thematic review on sickness and disability policies suggests that each country has interesting elements of policy to offer which other countries can learn from.
- March 2007: New Ways of Addressing Partial Work Capacity. The ongoing thematic review on sickness and disability policies suggests that the way countries are dealing with people with a partially-reduced work capacity is changing.
- June 2005 - the OECD has launched a new country review on "Reforming Sickness and Disability Policies to Improve Work Incentives" in order to examine national policies to control and reduce the inflow into sickness and disability benefit programmes and to assist those beneficiaries who want to reintegrate into the labour market. The objective is to reach a better understanding of the mechanisms and policies that lead a person with a health problem to withdraw from the labour market.
For other disability-related staff paper/presentations, click here.
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