Workplace Mental Health Disclosure, Sustainable Employability and Well-Being at Work: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Military Personnel with Mental Illness

Bogaers, Rebecca; Geuze, Elbert; Weeghel, Jaap van; Leijten, Fenna; Mheen, Dike van de; Rüsch, Nicolas; Rozema, Andrea D.; Brouwers, Evelien P. M.

doi:10.1007/s10926-022-10083-2

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The literature shows that strong leadership and leadership support are important for employee well-being and sustainable employability [25][26][27][28]. The current WHP Program included the senior leadership by informing them beforehand about the program.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Workplace Health Promotion Program for a Predominantly Military Population: Associations with General Health, Mental Well-Being and Sustainable Employability

Bogaers,

Sluik,

Helmhout

et al. 2024

IJERPH

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Due to the globally increasing life expectancies, many countries are raising their official retirement age to prevent labor shortages and sustain retirement systems. This trend emphasizes the need for sustainable employability. Unhealthy lifestyles pose a risk to sustainable employability as they contribute to chronic diseases and decreased productivity. Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) programs have gained attention as a strategy to enhance employee health and well-being. The Netherlands Armed Forces, a unique employer with demanding psychological and physical requirements, was used as a case study to investigate the associations of a WHP Program with workers health and sustainable employability. The program offered tailor-made guidance to participants (N = 341) through individual coaching trajectories. The program’s impact was evaluated by measuring self-reported health, mental well-being, and sustainable employability over a 6-month period. Results indicated significant improvements across all these dimensions after participation in the program. This study provides valuable insights into the benefits of tailor-made WHP programs. While this was an observational study without a control group, this study supports the importance of incorporating individualized approaches in WHP initiatives to foster positive outcomes in health and sustainable employability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Workplace Health Promotion Program for a Predominantly Military Population: Associations with General Health, Mental Well-Being and Sustainable Employability

Bogaers,

Sluik,

Helmhout

et al. 2024

IJERPH

Self Cite

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“…In Netherlands, several studies have shown that a variety of workplace stakeholders tend to have negative attitudes towards people with MHI, such as HR managers, line managers and coworkers (1,6,7,19,20). However, research on this topic is very scarce in Netherlands, especially on attitudes of workers in non-managerial positions, who often make up a large part of the social work environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dutch workers’ attitudes towards having a coworker with mental health issues or illness: a latent class analysis

et al. 2023

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IntroductionWorkplace mental health stigma is a major problem as it can lead to adverse occupational outcomes and reduced well-being. Although workplace climate is largely determined by managers and co-workers, the role of co-workers in workplace stigma is understudied. Therefore, the aims are: (1) to examine knowledge and attitudes towards having a coworker with Mental Health Issues or Illness (MHI), especially concerning the desire for social distance, (2) to identify distinct subgroups of workers based on their potential concerns towards having a coworker with MHI, and (3) to characterize these subgroups in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and background characteristics.Materials and methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among a nationally representative internet panel of 1,224 Dutch workers who had paid jobs and did not hold management positions. Descriptive statistics and a three-step approach Latent Class Analysis (LCA) were used to address the research aims.ResultsConcerning the desire for social distance, 41.9% of Dutch workers indicated they did not want to have a close colleague with MHI, and 64.1% did not want to work for a higher-ranking manager who had MHI. In contrast however, most workers did not have negative experiences with interacting with coworkers with MHI (92.6%). Next, five distinct subgroups (SG) of workers were identified: two subgroups with few concerns towards having a coworker with MHI (SG1 and SG2; 51.8% of the respondents), one subgroup with average concerns (SG3; 22.7% of the respondents), and two subgroups with more concerns (SG4 and SG5; 25.6% of the respondents). Four out of five subgroups showed a high tendency towards the desire for social distance. Nevertheless, even in the subgroups with more concerns, (almost) half of the respondents were willing to learn more about how to best deal with coworkers with MHI. No significant differences were found between the subgroups on background characteristics.DiscussionThe high tendency to the desire for social distance seems to contrast with the low number of respondents who personally had negative experiences with workers with MHI in the workplace. This suggests that the tendency to socially exclude this group was not based on their own experience. The finding that a large group of respondents indicated to want to learn more about how to deal with a co-worker with MHI is promising. Destigmatizing interventions in the workplace are needed in order to create more inclusive workplaces to improve sustained employment of people with MHI. These interventions should focus on increasing the knowledge of workers about how to best communicate and deal with coworkers with MHI, they do not need to differentiate in background variables of workers.

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Inability to Work Fulltime and the Association with Paid Employment One Year After the Work Disability Assessment: A Longitudinal Register-Based Cohort Study

Boersema,

Hoekstra,

van Ooijen

et al. 2024

J Occup Rehabil

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Objectives Disability benefit applicants with residual work capacity are often not able to work fulltime. In Dutch work disability benefit assessments, the inability to work fulltime is an important outcome, indicating the number of hours the applicant can sustain working activities per day. This study aims to gain insight into the association between inability to work fulltime and having paid employment 1 year after the assessment. Methods The study is a longitudinal register-based cohort study of work disability applicants who were granted a partial disability benefit (n = 8300). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the association between inability to work fulltime and having paid employment 1 year after the assessment, separately for working and non-working applicants. Results For disability benefit applicants, whether working (31.9%) or not working (68.1%) at the time of the disability assessment, there was generally no association between inability to work fulltime and having paid employment 1 year later. However, for working applicants diagnosed with a musculoskeletal disease or cancer, inability to work fulltime was positively and negatively associated with having paid employment, respectively. For non-working applicants with a respiratory disease or with multimorbidity, inability to work fulltime was negatively associated with paid employment. Conclusions Inability to work fulltime has limited association with paid employment 1 year after the disability benefit assessment, regardless of the working status at the time of assessment. However, within certain disease groups, inability to work fulltime can either increase or decrease the odds of having paid employment after the assessment.

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Workplace Mental Health Disclosure, Sustainable Employability and Well-Being at Work: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Military Personnel with Mental Illness

Cited by 5 publications

References 54 publications

A Workplace Health Promotion Program for a Predominantly Military Population: Associations with General Health, Mental Well-Being and Sustainable Employability

A Workplace Health Promotion Program for a Predominantly Military Population: Associations with General Health, Mental Well-Being and Sustainable Employability

Dutch workers’ attitudes towards having a coworker with mental health issues or illness: a latent class analysis

Inability to Work Fulltime and the Association with Paid Employment One Year After the Work Disability Assessment: A Longitudinal Register-Based Cohort Study

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