Mental Health and Work: Norway
Tackling mental ill-health of the working-age population is becoming a key issue for labour market and social policies in OECD countries. OECD governments increasingly recognise that policy has a major role to play in keeping people with mental ill-health in employment or bringing those outside of the labour market back to it, and in preventing mental illness. This report on Norway is the fourth in a series of reports looking at how the broader education, health, social and labour market policy challenges identified in Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health and Work (OECD, 2012) are being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It concludes that Norway faces a unique situation whereby a generous welfare system stimulates large-scale labour market exclusion and significant socio-economic inequalities of people with a mental disorder, and hindering better outcomes of its employment and vocational rehabilitation programmes.
Involving mental health care in Norway in employment issues
This chapter describes some key parameters of the inpatient and outpatient mental health care system in Norway with respect to consequences of the employment status of the patients. Possible ways to overcome the fragmentation between mental health care, rehabilitation and the disability benefit system are discussed. The chapter pays particular attention to the collaboration between the Labour and Welfare Administration, the District Psychiatric Centres, and the physicians in private practice. Finally, the importance and the availability of inter-sectoral data as well as the development of employment-related quality indicators and evidence-based steering mechanisms in the mental health system are discussed.