Burnout More and more mental illnesses in the job

Burn-Out: Workers increasingly with mental illness

26.01.2013

Mental illnesses are increasingly the reason for sick leave. Thus, the disease days have increased by 18-fold over eight years due to burn-out syndrome „World on Sunday“ citing current figures of the BKK Federal Association. Only at the end of last year, the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) had published an evaluation of the data of the German Pension Insurance (DRV), which came to the conclusion that now almost half of the early retirement are caused by mental illness.

Overall, have „The absence days in companies because of mental illness in the last ten years more than doubled“, reports the BKK Bundesverband. Employees are increasingly unable to cope with the mental pressure at work. With the project „Mental health in the workplace“ (psyGA) the BKK Bundesverband tries to counteract this alarming trend. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) and supported by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). For example, the last specialist forum of the psyGa project included executives under the title „Respectfully lead - promote mental health“ about the „Demands of an increasingly complex world of work on the mental health of employees“ informed, so the message of the BKK.

Expert forum on mental health in companies
At the forum, the operating conditions as a cause of mental illness such as the burn-out syndrome were discussed. Among other things, Professor Dr. Wolfgang Senf from the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) „a good (or not so good) leadership can impact on the disease.“ In addition, the BKK Bundesverband, together with the Institute for Occupational Medicine and Social Medicine of the RWTH Aachen University, has developed a concept for an eLearning tool to improve the prevention of mental illness in companies. Whether such measures can contribute to a noticeable reduction in mental illness remains open for the time being. (Fp)

Also read about mental illness:
More and more people with mental illness
Much more missing days due to mental illness
Common mental illnesses among commuters

Picture credits: Gerd Altmann / Shapes: photoshopgraphics.com