Health and Wellbeing in Public Sector Employees

Dear Colleagues,

In the United Kingdom, as in much of the rest of Europe and around the rest of the world, stress and mental health at work are considerable challenges for the health of both employees and their employing organisations. It is now widely known that chronic stress is as much of a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, for example, as well-known risks such as smoking and high blood pressure. Therefore, in the United Kingdom, stress, depression, and anxiety are the leading cause of long-term sickness absence (absence that lasts for four weeks or more), and is second only to colds/flu for short-term absences.

The public sector—police, education, social work, healthcare, and so on—is consistently more heavily affected by stress- and mental health-related sickness absence than private sector occupations. Indeed, healthcare, social care, and education are the most heavily affected employment sectors, costing the state and individual organisations millions. However, sickness absence not only impacts employees and employers, it also has knock-on effects for service users and patients. For example, research has demonstrated that healthcare employers with higher levels of sickness absence and lower levels of engagement had a worsened morbidity and mortality outcomes for patients.

This Special Edition invites papers surrounding two topics, both related to public sector employers from across the globe, namely:

• Causes of stress- and mental health-related sickness absence.
• Evidence-based interventions that seek to improve mental health and wellbeing.

Therefore, I invite you to submit papers that span either one or both of these topics.

Dr. Jermaine M Ravalier
Guest Editor

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