Work keeps us healthy
By Jim Bright | smh.com.au | 28 February
There is a strong link between unemployment and mental illness.
Economists predict unemployment will rise significantly over the next year and they highlight the adverse impact this will have on the economy.
But what about the adverse impact upon the individuals who find themselves unemployed? Over the past 10 years of economic boom times there has been scant attention given to the unemployed, because they simply didn't amount to a large enough group to be of interest to most economists. The assumption has been that most of this tiny percentage were somehow "understandably" unemployed due to their pre-existing mental health problems or physical disabilities. The mantra was that there was work for those willing and able.
Considering unemployment as largely a problem for the economy risks obscuring the personal impact. And it turns out the personal impact is immense. Recently completed research by Karsten Paul and Klaus Moser, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and published in the Journal Of Vocational Behavior, shows just how dangerous unemployment is for wellbeing.
The researchers looked at the impacts of unemployment on individuals as reported in 237 studies containing 323 independent samples that compared the unemployed and employed. That amounted to studying almost half a million people. The extensive nature of the research alone suggests that we should take their work seriously but their conclusions demand it.
First they considered psychological health and examined the studies that had measured people's level of distress, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, subjective wellbeing and anxiety. They found overall that the unemployed were more than twice as likely to have serious mental health problems and require psychological or medical treatment.
The mental health impacts of unemployment appear to be more prevalent for males than females.
The researchers found studies that contained a large proportion of females tended to show weaker links between unemployment and mental health problems. The reasons for this are not clear.
It could reflect society's traditional expectations that the male be the breadwinner. Or perhaps females have better social support networks to ease the effects of unemployment.
Unsurprisingly, the longer you are unemployed the greater the risk of mental health problems.
But perhaps what is surprising is that the researchers found that health risks occur in spurts. There is a sharp increase in mental health problems over the first nine months, which appeared to recede somewhat before once again increasing after 29 months.
There was good news for the middle-aged. They tended to be more resilient in the face of unemployment than their younger or older counterparts.
The researchers also concluded that unemployment caused mental health problems. They were able to observe both increases in mental health and decreases over time for the same people as those people gained and lost jobs. Clearly pre-existing mental health problems are likely to contribute to the risk of being unemployed but this is not the only direction the relationship runs. On a more positive note, the research demonstrated clearly that intervention programs aimed at addressing the mental health of the unemployed resulted in significant gains.
It does not matter how accustomed to unemployment we are as a society. When we personally experience unemployment it is traumatic and disorienting. Good employers who have no option but to lay off staff need to be aware of the psychological impact of their actions and provide appropriate counselling. Governments need to maintain that counselling and if you are unemployed, understand there really is help available.
The Australian Psychological Society can put you in touch with a psychologist near your home. Phone 1800 333 497.
First published by Smh.com.au on February 28 2009
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