Mental health: Professional rehabilitation and the return to work - A systematic review

The problem of illnesses, sick leave and the necessary return to work and permanence at work has been determining the development of different protocols and professional rehabilitation programs in different countries.

We sought to identify articles that address programs for professional rehabilitation and the return to work of people laid off due to mental health problems, and to verify the results of professional rehabilitation programs and the follow-up processes for such return.

A systematic review was performed according to the criteria of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA). The serial search of the articles was carried out in the electronic databases: Web of Science, MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus. The variations in the descriptors served to find a greater range of significant results for the research.

In total, 2,306 articles were found. Another two articles that met the inclusion criteria were located through manual searches, adding up to a total of 2,308. Applying the exclusion criteria resulted in a final data set of 47 peer-reviewed articles.

The issues involving return to work and permanence in work were complex and multifaceted in the research articles studied. Recovery from Common Mental Disorders (CMDs) is a major cause of long-term sick leave and the granting of disability benefits. Many people with these diagnoses remain employed; however, further studies are needed with women, workers with fragile relationships, and immigrants.