Issues and Solutions in Mental Health and Work: Managers Perspectives of a Large Health Organization
Mental health problems in the workplace represent an important issue for public organizations, particularly for people working in the health sector who have been confronted to multiple changes following the recent health system reform in Quebec. Managers need to take into consideration employee mental health within their organization in order to ensure productive and healthy employees. Managers are thus called upon to take on a role that includes prevention (e.g., detection of early warning signs), team management (e.g., working on recognition at work) and coaching employees in their tasks when returning to work following a sick leave due to a common mental disorder (e.g., depression). Although there is an abundant literature on the manager’s role in the prevention of mental health problems in the workplace and the work rehabilitation of employees on sick leave due to a common mental disorder, to our knowledge, little research has been conducted on these issues regarding managers’ perceptions working in large health organizations. Furthermore, potential solutions have not been explored in this context. Objective The purpose of the study is to document, from the managers’ perspective within a large health organization in Quebec, the issues pertaining to mental health and work (from prevention to work rehabilitation), and the solutions to deal with them. Method As part of a participatory research project, researchers and collaborators of a large health organization conducted focus groups with managers on the theme of mental health and work: issues and solutions. A total of 83 managers spread out in 10 focus groups participated in this study. Results From these focus groups, 6 broad categories of issues related to mental health in the workplace emerged: 1) the management framework, 2) human, financial, material and information resource management, 3) management of mental health and tools, 4), stakeholders’ collaboration, roles and actions, 5) employees’ sense of belonging to the organization and, 6) work-life balance. From these broad conceptual categories, 23 specific issues and associated solutions emerged. Conclusions From this study, the general consensus was the need to have access to a series of tools (e.g., toolbox) in order to assist managers across the different steps, from sick-leave prevention, to rehabilitation and return to work. The results also highlighted the need to better define the roles of each stakeholder in this process. These results bring a new light to the issues and potential solutions perceived by managers dealing with mental health and work issues in a large health organization. These results could eventually be replicated in other settings or large organizations.