Mental Health Systems, Services and Supports

This chapter focuses on the links between treatment and employment of people with a mental disorder, both from the individual treatment perspective and a broader mental health care systems’ perspective. In the past decades, effective medical and psychological treatments and differentiated, community-based mental health care systems have been developed. However, these improvements have so far neither translated into a substantially broader inclusion of people with a mental disorder into the workforce nor to financial independence. The evidence points to manifold reasons for this, including the still severe under-treatment, or delayed treatment, of people with a mental disorder, some intrinsic characteristics of even milder disorders like co-morbidity, chronicity and the role of the personality, as well as the lack of collaboration between the health care system, the employers and other stakeholders. Finally, although most mental disorders are strongly influenced by socioeconomic factors, there is a prevailing neglect of employment issues in the treatment situation.