Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Volume VI, Interventions and Policies to Enhance Wellbeing

Chapter 6

A Systematic Review of Mental Health Promotion in the Workplace

Czesław Czabała

The Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education, Poland

Katarzyna Charzyska

Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Poland

Introduction

According to the U.K. Health Education Authority, the major aims of mental health promotion include the development of emotional resilience (thinking and feeling, managing life), of citizenship (belonging, participating), and of healthy structures (cf. Lehtinen, 2008). The workplace is considered to be one of the most important settings for mental health promotion, where all these aims can be achieved. From another perspective, work stress and work-related mental health problems have a number of major socioeconomic consequences, such as absenteeism, labor turnover, loss of productivity, and disability pension costs (Palmer & Dryden, 1994). In the HERO study (Goetzel, Ozminkowski, Sederer, & Tami, 2002) depression was found to increase the annual health-care costs by as much as 70%. Challenging working conditions also produce personal costs, such as lower self-esteem, somatic diseases (e.g., cardiac conditions), and have a negative impact on family life (Goodspeed & DeLucia, 1990). On the other hand, the workplace is an appropriate setting for promotion of good mental health practices. At the organizational level, improvement of working conditions and changes ...