Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

What we do

The Sainsbury Centre Employment Programme is working to have more employers, large and small, private and public, signed up to provide a mentally healthy workplace and take active steps to recruit, retain and support the rehabilitation of people in their workforce who experience mental ill health.

We want to make evidence-based employment support services an integral part of all mental health and primary care services across the UK. We also aim to help commissioners, regulators, policymakers and practitioners understand the importance of employment as part of the recovery from and prevention of mental health problems.

We work with:

• service providers and the healthcare professions, including commissioners, practitioners and regulators across primary and secondary care to promote evidence-based practice in vocational rehabilitation and the link between employment and mental health
• employers on mental health promotion, prevention, retention and rehabilitation
• the Criminal Justice programme on increasing the development of employment pathways for people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system, including secure hospitals

Working with Services and Healthcare

In secondary care, we work to promote the benefits of work to health and social care practitioners and to support the development of evidence-based employment-focused healthcare services.

In primary care we aim to promote best practice in job retention and vocational rehabilitation for people with common mental health problems and significantly change the attitudes and behaviours of GPs towards those people whose employment is at risk.

Furthermore, we seek to promote the links between mental health and employment to commissioners and regulators of mental health services, and to provide commissioners with effective tools to ensure the delivery of employment outcomes.

We work with Peers and MPs to change their perceptions and to press for changes to policies and to influence the public perceptions about people with mental health problems in the workforce.

Working with Employers

We help employers improve their occupational health and other support services for people with mental ill health in the workforce. Our work also includes advice to employers on interventions that will promote mental health and well being, reduce sickness absence and improve the management, retention and rehabilitation of individual employees who become unwell at work or have been off sick.

Working in Partnership

Much of our work is in partnership with other organisations and agencies, such as the Employers Forum on Disability, the Care Services Improvement Partnership, the Disability Rights Commission and Mindful Employer.