Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Britain begins pilot project in which temps would cover work missed due to mental health concerns

From The Guardian in the UK:


Ministers have agreed to pilot a scheme to meet the costs of temporary replacement staff when workers with mental health problems need to take time off sick.

The scheme is one of a range of measures announced in response to a report identifying the obstacles to employment of people who suffer mental illness or distress.

Rachel Perkins, author of the report, said that more than 1 million people who lived on welfare benefits had a mental health condition. The total number of people without work who had such a condition was probably double that.

"People with mental health problems remain one of the most excluded groups in our society, and nowhere is this more so than in the workplace," said Perkins, director of quality assurance at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS trust.

Official estimates suggest that no more than 16% of people with any mental illness, and possibly as few as 3.4% of those attending hospital clinics, have a job of more than 16 hours a week.

Jonathan Shaw, minister for disabled people at the Department for Work and Pensions, admitted that the department's Access to Work programme, which offers financial support for the employment of people with disabilities, was failing to give enough help to individuals with mental health problems.

As part of a doubling of the programme's budget by 2013-14, taking it to £138m a year, Shaw accepted changes recommended by Perkins to make Access to Work more flexible and responsive to the needs of people suffering mental distress.

Changes will include trial funding of cover for workers who may need to take leave of absence because of episodic illness; greater flexibility of support so that it can be tailored to an individual's particular needs; and advance notification of an indicative level of support likely to be forthcoming, so that job applicants and employers know where they stand.

Shaw said: "This will be like someone having a ticket to take to a prospective employer, saying: 'This is the level of support I can get.'"

The measures are set out in Work, Recovery & Inclusion, the ministerial response to the Perkins report, Realising Ambitions: Better Employment Support for People with Mental Health Conditions.

The documents were published simultaneously with New Horizons, the government's 10-year strategy for mental health care and support, which aims to set policy and practice in a broad, social context. Phil Hope, care services minister, said: "It's crucial that services are much better co-ordinated to help people get back to good health, to get back into the workplace and to get back to playing a full role in their communities."