Developing an Integrated Approach to Workplace Mental Health

This book describes the theory and research evidence underlying Total Worker Health (R), an initiative of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that aims to create a culture of healthy workplaces nationwide. In this chapter, we first present two background premises: (a) there is a high prevalence of mental health problems and disorders in the working population, and (b) working conditions are important and modifiable risk and protective factors for these problems. Workplace interventions to address common mental health problems have evolved relatively independently along three main threads or disciplinary traditions: medicine, public health, and psychology. The remainder of the chapter presents in detail our proposition that interventions from each of these three threads need to be integrated to achieve the greatest population mental health benefits. An integrated approach would protect mental health by reducing work-related risk factors, promote mental health by developing the positive aspects of work as well as worker strengths and positive capacities, and address mental health problems among working people regard-less of cause. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)