Perspectives of unemployed workers with mental health problems: barriers to and solutions for return to work

AbstractPurpose: To evaluate the barriers to and solutions for return to work (RTW) from the perspective of unemployed workers who were sick-listed due to mental health problems.Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 sick-listed unemployed workers with mental health problems. Qualitative data analysis was performed, using a process of identifying, coding, and categorising the patterns in data.Results: All workers experienced multiple problems in different domains of life related to their disease, personal circumstances (e.g., divorced, debts) and their environment (e.g., labour market problems, issues with the Social Security Agency). Workers differed in the way they perceived their RTW process and in the extent to which they were able to envision and implement the solutions for RTW, thus resulting in three types of workers’ attitudes towards their own RTW process: (1) “frozen”; (2) “insightful though passive”; and (3) “action mode”.Conclusions: We conclude that the sick-listed unemploye...