Inklusion af medarbejdere med psykiske funktionsnedsættelser i arbejdslivet: En fænomenologisk-hermeneutisk undersøgelse af oplevelsen af inklusion hos medarbejdere med psykiske funktionsnedsættelser på det danske arbejdsmarked

Abstract

Background - A Danish cohort study by Plana-Ripollpp and colleagues (2023) exam-ined the relationship between mental disorders and time spent in the labor market and found that individuals who receive a psychiatric diagnosis lose an average of 10.5 years in the labor market. In the period from 2012-2021, there has been an increase in the number of diagnoses among children and young people in Denmark according to data from the Danish National Patient Register (Prytz, 2022). It can be assumed that in the future, the Danish labor market will need to actively work on how the upcoming workforce with potential special needs can be included in the workplace. Although there is a growing body of literature on people with mental illness, there is still limited knowledge about how they experience inclusion in the workplace. Purpose - The symptoms of mental illness can result in impaired psychological func-tioning. As such, the aim of this study was to explore how employees with psycholog-ical disabilities experience inclusion at the workplace. Approach - Employing a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach within a Danish context, this study conducted five semi-structured interviews with individuals meeting the study's inclusion criteria. Following transcription, data analysis was carried out using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Findings - The analysis revealed four emerging themes that seem to influence how employees with psychological disabilities experience inclusion at the workplace. These are: 1) Considerations regarding the disclosure of diagnosis/diagnoses, 2) An (un)adapted work-life, 3) The role of management, and 4) The collegial work commu-nity. Discussion - Across these themes the concepts of ‘stigmatization’ and ‘security’ were prominent and so these were discussed in terms of how they could aid our understand-ing of inclusion at the workplace among employees with psychological disabilities. Several aspects can be considered barriers to the experience of inclusion of employees with psychological disabilities, including the needs that individuals bring with them into the workplace, and stigmatization that the individuals may experience based on assumptions associated with their diagnostic label. Furthermore, security was dis-cussed in terms of psychological safety, as it is considered a protective/facilitative fac-tor for the experience of inclusion in the workplace among employees with psycho-logical disabilities. Following this, the limitations and quality of the study were dis-cussed. Further implications - Lastly, the findings suggest that future research should further explore how employees with psychological disabilities utilize coping strategies and how these, along with psychological safety, affect their experience of inclusion at the workplace.

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Inklusion af medarbejdere med psykiske funktionsnedsættelser i arbejdslivet: En fænomenologisk-hermeneutisk undersøgelse af oplevelsen af inklusion hos medarbejdere med psykiske funktionsnedsættelser på det danske arbejdsmarked

[Inclusion of employees with psychological disabilities in the workplace: A phenomenological-hermeneutic study of the experience of inclusion among employees with psychological disabilities in the Danish labor market]