The Government's commitment to the health of the UK workforce needs to be backed up by investment in workers who have the skills needed to help people with mental health problems to choose, get and keep jobs, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health employment programme director Dr Bob Grove said today.
Welcoming the Government's response Improving health and work: changing lives to Dame Carol Black's Review of the health of Britain's working-age population, Bob Grove said: "The new electronic fit note, the Fit for Work service and the provision of practical help and advice to small businesses should prevent many people with mental health problems from losing their jobs. The expansion of Pathways to Work nationally should also help more people who have lost their jobs to get back to work.
"But success will depend on the availability of a suitably skilled workforce. Employment staff need to be able to build people's confidence and motivation and to be sensitive to the needs of people with mental health problems. In the UK we do not have enough people with these skills and need urgently to invest in training.
"The need for action has never been greater. We must ensure people with mental health problems who lose their jobs do not get written off during this recession in the way they were in the 1980s and 1990s.
"British business could save up to £8 billion if it managed mental health at work more effectively. By accepting the inevitability of mental distress and helping staff who become unwell, employers find they have a more productive and better motivated workforce. Now is the time to make that happen across the UK."
The Government today published 'Improving health and work: changing lives' its response to Dame Carol Black's Review of the health of Britain's working-age population.
It includes proposals for a new electronic 'fit note' to replace the current medical certificate, a national education programme for GPs, an occupational health helpline for smaller businesses, and a range of early intervention 'Fit for Work' pilots to make access to work-related health support more available alongside the extension of the Pathways Advisory Service where Jobcentre plus staff are based in GP surgeries and the employment advisors within the Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies programme.