Mental Health in the Workplace: Return to Work Scoping Review
Name: Adam Rosenfeld
School: Mailman School of Public Health, Class of 2021
Mentor: Kathleen Pike, PhD
Abstract
Employee absenteeism costs companies over $200 billion per year in the United States. While physical injury rates have decreased in many countries, the number of sickness absence days taken for mental health conditions has risen to become a leading cause of absenteeism. In order to improve employee wellness and reduce lost time, companies are employing a number of employee wellness strategies, some of which target successful Return to Work (RTW). RTW interventions can range from electronic notifications to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). However, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence and best-practices recommendations regarding the effectiveness of these interventions in reducing lost time, costs, or mental health condition symptoms. This study focuses on the current evidence for interventions designed to improve return to work experience and reduce absenteeism for workers on mental health-related sickness absence. After search term development and optimization, 183 abstracts extracted from PubMED and Embase were screened for relevance. Of these abstracts, 45 full texts were reviewed. Five journal articles, as well as a 2017 systematic review and 2015 Cochrane review, were included. Evidence from studies involving Return to Work for mental health conditions is mixed, with studies of varying quality and conflicting recommendations. To meet the high demand for services, further research is required into the topic of RTW interventions for those with mental health conditions. The current state of scarce evidence must be built upon in order to identify best practices for evidence-based strategies in the workplace.