Returning to Work after a Common Mental Health Disorder: a New Preoccupation for Mental Health Professionals?

Since 2010, the Belgian mental healthcare system has been involved in a structural reform: the main objective of this reorganisation is to foster the reintegration in the community of patients suffering from a mental health disorder. In parallel, the role of mental health professionals has evolved these last years: from a strictly clinical role, to the preoccupation with the rehabilitation of social competencies such as enhancing patients' abilities to return to work. The aim of this paper is to explore, specifically for patients hospitalized for a common mental health disorder, the predictive variables of returning to work within 6 months after hospitalization (RTW6).

Our sample was extracted from routinely collected data during the patients' hospital stay (10 days) at the Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Day Centre of CHU Godinne. A sample of 134 patients participated in our study. Those patients were contacted 6 months after their hospitalization to assess resumption of work.

We found that a patient's sociodemographicand socioeconomic variables, and depressive symptoms at the beginning of hospitalization were not predictive of return to work within 6 months (RTW6). On the other hand, duration of absence from work before hospitalization and the diagnosis of a major depression in particular were negatively associated with RTW6, whereas improvement of depressive symptoms during hospitalization stay was positively associated to RTW6.

Our study identified the diagnosis of major depression and the duration of absence from work before hospitalization as two important risk factors impeding a fast return to work for patients hospitalised for a common mental health disorder. As the preoccupation with patients' abilities to return to work is now on the agenda of mental health professionals, special support and supervision should be dedicated to the more vulnerable patients.