Workplace-Based Organizational Interventions Promoting Mental Health and Happiness among Healthcare Workers: A Realist Review

Patricia Gray, Sipho Senabe, Nisha Naicker, Spo Kgalamono, Annalee Yassi and Jerry M. Spiegel
Additional contact information
Patricia Gray: School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
Sipho Senabe: Gauteng Department of Health, Gauteng Provincial Government, 45 Commissioner Street, Marshall Town (Johannesburg) 2147, South Africa
Nisha Naicker: National Institute of Occupational Health, National Health Laboratory Service, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa
Spo Kgalamono: National Institute of Occupational Health, National Health Laboratory Service, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa
Annalee Yassi: School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
Jerry M. Spiegel: School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: Mental illness, deemed globally to account for 32% of years lived with a disability, generates significant impacts on workplaces. In particular, healthcare workers experience high rates of mental ill health such as burnout, stress, and depression due to workplace conditions including excessive workloads, workplace violence and bullying, which also produces negative effects on patients as well as on the happiness and wellbeing of those who remain at work. This review was undertaken to synthesize the evidence on workplace-based interventions at the organizational level promoting mental health and wellbeing among healthcare workers, to identify what has been receiving attention in this area and why, especially considering how such positive effects are produced. A search of three premier health-related databases identified 1290 articles that discussed healthcare workers, workplace interventions, and mental health. Following further examination, 46 articles were ultimately selected as meeting the criteria specifying interventions at the organizational level and combined with similar studies included in a relevant Cochrane review. The 60 chosen articles were then analyzed following a realist framework analyzing context, mechanism, and outcome. Most of the studies included in the realist review were conducted in high-income countries, and the types of organizational-level interventions studied included skills and knowledge development, leadership development, communication and team building, stress management as well as workload and time management. Common themes from the realist review highlight the importance of employee engagement in the intervention development and implementation process. The literature review also supports the recognized need for more research on mental health and happiness in low- and middle-income countries, and for studies evaluating the longer-term effects of workplace mental health promotion.

Keywords: mental health; occupational mental health; healthcare workers; mental health promotion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4396/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4396/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4396-:d:285604

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().