Due to psycho-suffering more and more sick leave

Mental suffering causes more and more sick leave

26.04.2012

More and more people are suffering from mental illness such as burnout, depression or neurosis. This emerges from the "Health Report 2012" of the statutory health insurance DAK. While back pain, abdominal pain and respiratory disease are still the most common causes of lost time, mental illness continues to worsen. Employees are missing an average of 30 working days.

Record high in mental illness
The DAK had analyzed in more detail in the last year the sick leave of about 224,000 employed persons in Hesse. The sick leave rate was therefore 3.7 percent in 2011, the highest in the last 15 years. In the previous year this was slightly below 3.5 percent. The health insurance found that out of 1,000 employees, 37 were reported as ill per day.

12.9 percent of all lost days are due to mental illness as the cause.„The mental illnesses are increasing more and more“, explained Uwe Senfleben of the DAK. In 2010 it was still 11.5 percent. According to DAK, a person affected in Hessen lacks about 30 days in the company. „Job and leisure are becoming more and more interconnected“, reported Senfleben. „That does not pass anyone.“ Mobile phones and other new media have made it difficult for many workers to really close work. The recovery from a mental illness also often takes longer. It is striking that in the group of 60- to 65-year-olds significantly more employees are affected by mental suffering. „The older, the more susceptible the employees become“, explained the expert.

According to the DAK Health Report, women are more likely to fall 16.3 percent due to mental health problems than men with only 11 percent. For women, mental illnesses after musculoskeletal and respiratory diseases rank third in the incapacity to work. In men, they occupy the fourth place after musculoskeletal disorders, injuries and respiratory diseases.

Risk of heart attack increased by mental suffering
Stress at the workplace also increases the risk of a heart attack. Influencing factors are mainly overtime and time pressure, especially if the employees are dissatisfied with their salary and they lack recognition.

The Patient Association sees a connection between work and mental illness. „The job market has become sharper“, President Christian Zimmermann told the news agency „dpa“. „Employees can come in stressful situations that can cause mental illness.“ Business associations warn, however, not to see such a connection quickly.

Graduate social pedagogue Gritli Bertram knows the problem from her daily work: „Especially in social or nursing occupations, workers are sometimes so much demanded that many work for years at their limit. In addition, there is often a lack of sleep, which is triggered by a disturbed sleep rhythm by the change of day and night shifts. But many just can not switch off after work.“ Not surprisingly, the DAK scored 4.1 percent, the second highest sickness rate among health care professionals. (Ag)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann