A BELFAST university has been selected to join a three-year research project which seeks to tackle the issue of unemployment due to poor mental health.
Queen’s University Belfast will partner on the £1.8m project, which is government-funded and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research
Dr Juliet Hassard, from Queen’s Business School, will join researchers from universities across the UK on the study – including Birkbeck, University of London, the University of Nottingham, and Lancaster University, which is leading the project under the direction of Professor Stavroula Leka.
Queen’s University BelfastCurrently there are an estimated 2.78m people out of work due to ill-health, which is costing employers £18.8bn per year.
Over the past decade the increase in people out of work has been driven by mental-health conditions, research shows, with poor mental health making employment harder to sustain.
“Poor mental health is now one of the leading reasons people leave the workforce, highlighting the need for a greater focus on prevention,” Dr Hassard said.
“This project will examine how policies and workplace practices can help create healthier psychosocial work environments – where work is designed, organised and managed in ways that support wellbeing,” she added.
“By identifying what works in the UK and internationally, we hope to generate evidence that informs future policy and helps more people remain in healthy, sustainable work,” Dr Hassard explained.
The three-year research programme will support the development of “updated prevention-oriented policies and metrics, which can then be translated into national, regional, sectoral, and organisational interventions” Dr Hassard confirmed.
Stavroula Leka, Distinguished Professor of Organisations, Work and Health and Principal Investigator at Lancaster University, said the issue is not “a uniquely British challenge”.
“While more people are economically inactive due to mental ill-health in the UK than in other countries, this is not a uniquely British challenge,” she said.
“Similar trends can be seen in other countries including Finland and Norway, but what makes them different is how they are responding.
She added: “These countries have worked to revamp their regulation, policies and support systems, putting a healthy psychosocial work environment and sustainable work at the heart of these initiatives.”
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