Exploring Mental Health Patient's Perceptions and Aspirations in Employment

[摘要] Aims. To explore mental health in-patient’s perceptions andaspirations in employment and to produce a lay document onemploymentMethods. Employment is beneficial, it improves mental healthand betters social integration. Different interventions exist to support mental health patients into employment. However, patientsexperience many obstacles, including the characteristics of theircondition and stigma.Literature review was undertaken, using a search string onPubMed focusing on mental health and employment.Developed and used a 17-question questionnaire exploringpatients’ perceptions and aspirations in employmentCreated lay document containing information on benefits ofemployment, employment rights and accessing employment.Results. 100% of patients interviewed were interested in employment. 90.9% believed employment would improve their mentalhealth and 100% believed it would improve their connection totheir community. 100% felt there is a stigma around mentalhealth problems which makes finding employment harder.Conclusion. The barriers mental health patients seeking employment face are varied and complex. Most wish to seek employment, and should be encouraged, as the health benefits areclear. Professionals need to acknowledge individual barrierspatients face including different mental health characteristics, ethnicity, gender and personal circumstances and find a way to createa bespoke service tailored to patients’ needs in order to secureemployment.

[学科分类] 计算机科学（综合）