Employment Interventions for Persons with Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

The occupational disability associated with mood and anxiety disorders has been receiving increasing attention from mental health and occupational researchers and practitioners, leading to the development of several work-focused interventions for these conditions. This is clearly an emerging area of research that has yet to define the critical intervention to remedy this substantial problem. This chapter describes the existing interventions with an eye toward highlighting applications to current rehabilitation and mental health practice but also the need for further development in this area. In order to provide some context, we begin first with a brief description of mood and anxiety disorders, their impact on work functioning (we refer the reader to chapters by Wald (2011) and by Lerner et al. (2011), this volume, for a more detailed discussion of these issues) and a summary of optimal treatment for these disorders. Next, we review several work-based interventions, including their key elements and available data on their effectiveness. We have organized these work-based interventions into three categories: individual level (those delivered to the individual employee), organization level (those delivered company-wide), and combined (those that combine both types). Finally, we identify common treatment foci of these interventions and how these may inform current practice.