Table Of ContentMental Health and Work
netHerlands
Mental Health and Work
Contents
Executive summary
netHerlands
Assessment and recommendations
Chapter 1. Mental health and work challenges in the Netherlands
Chapter 2. Mental health of Dutch youth and the transition into the labour market
Chapter 3. Working conditions and sickness management in the Netherlands
Chapter 4. Employment support in the Netherlands for people out of work
Chapter 5. T he role of the Dutch health care sector in improving mental health
and work outcomes
Further reading
Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health and Work (2012)
Mental Health and Work: Belgium (2013)
Mental Health and Work: Denmark (2013)
Mental Health and Work: Sweden (2013)
Mental Health and Work: Norway (2013)
Mental Health and Work: Switzerland (2014) M
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Mental Health and Work: United Kingdom (2014) n
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FOREWORD –
Foreword
Tackling mental ill-health of the working-age population is becoming a
key issue for labour market and social policies in many OECD countries. It
is an issue that has been neglected for too long despite creating very high
and increasing costs to people and society at large. OECD governments
increasingly recognise that policy has a major role to play in improving the
employment opportunities for people with mental ill-health, including very
young people especially; in helping those employed but struggling in their
jobs; and in avoiding long-term sickness and disability caused by a
mental disorder.
A first OECD report on this subject, Sick on the Job? Myths and
Realities about Mental Health and Work, published in January 2012,
identified the main underlying policy challenges facing OECD countries by
broadening the evidence base and questioning some myths around the links
between mental ill-health and work. This report on the Netherlands is one in
a series of reports looking at how these policy challenges are being tackled
in selected OECD countries, covering issues such as the transition from
education to employment, the role of the workplace, the institutions
providing employment services for jobseekers, the transition into permanent
disability and the capacity of the health system. The other reports look at the
situation in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Together, these nine reports aim to
deepen the evidence on good mental health and work policy. Each report
also contains a series of detailed country-specific policy recommendations.
Work on this review was a collaborative effort carried out jointly by the
Employment Analysis and Policy Division and the Social Policy Division of
the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. The
report was prepared by Iris Arends and Veerle Miranda under the
supervision of Christopher Prinz. Statistical work was provided by
Dana Blumin. Valuable comments were given by Robin Risselada and
Shruti Singh. The report also includes comments from various Dutch
experts, ministries and organisations, including the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Employment; the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science;
the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport; the Employee Insurance Agency
(UWV); and the Dutch Association of Mental Health and Addiction
Care (GGZ).
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: NETHERLANDS © OECD 2014
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS –
Table of contents
Acronyms and abbreviations .......................................................................................... 9
Executive summary ........................................................................................................ 11
Assessment and recommendations ............................................................................... 13
Chapter 1. Mental health and work challenges in the Netherlands ........................... 21
Definitions and objectives ............................................................................................ 22
Key trends and outcomes ............................................................................................. 25
The Dutch context: Devolution of government responsibilities ................................... 31
Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 32
Notes ............................................................................................................................ 32
References .................................................................................................................... 33
Chapter 2. Mental health of Dutch youth and the transition into
the labour market .......................................................................................................... 35
The role of the education system in tackling mental ill-health ..................................... 37
A new policy for youth care to reduce scattered services ............................................ 45
Investments have been made to reduce the number of early school leavers ................ 48
Transition into the labour market ................................................................................. 51
Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................. 53
Notes ............................................................................................................................ 57
References .................................................................................................................... 57
Chapter 3. Working conditions and sickness management in the Netherlands ........ 61
Working conditions and mental ill-health .................................................................... 62
Preventing psychosocial risks at work ......................................................................... 64
Effective sickness management at the workplace ........................................................ 69
Sickness benefit payments are very generous .............................................................. 77
Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................. 78
Notes ............................................................................................................................ 82
References .................................................................................................................... 83
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: NETHERLANDS © OECD 2014
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– TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 4. Employment support in the Netherlands for people out of work ............ 89
The clients of UWV and the support they receive ....................................................... 90
Increasing responsibilities for the municipalities ....................................................... 110
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................ 116
Notes .......................................................................................................................... 120
References .................................................................................................................. 120
Chapter 5. The role of the Dutch health care sector in improving mental health
and work outcomes ...................................................................................................... 127
Treatment of mental health problems ......................................................................... 128
The Dutch mental health care system and recent reforms .......................................... 132
Minimal focus on work in mental health care ............................................................ 140
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................ 143
Notes .......................................................................................................................... 146
References .................................................................................................................. 147
Figures
Figure 1.1. Mental disorders are very costly for society ...................................... 22
Figure 1.2. Labour market outcomes for people with a mental disorder are
rather good in the Netherlands........................................................... 26
Figure 1.3. The higher the share of part-time workers, the better the labour
market outcomes for people with mental disorders ........................... 27
Figure 1.4. High but declining disability benefit caseload and spending ............ 28
Figure 1.5. New disability claims have fallen to OECD average ........................ 29
Figure 1.6. Many disability benefit recipients suffer from a mental disorder ...... 30
Figure 1.7. Prevalence of mental disorders is high among unemployed people .. 30
Figure 2.1. The majority of primary, secondary and vocational schools
involve care teams ............................................................................. 38
Figure 2.2. Composition of external care and advice teams in primary,
secondary and vocational education .................................................. 40
Figure 2.3. Main tasks of external care and advice teams in primary,
secondary and vocational education .................................................. 41
Figure 2.4. Strong increase of students in secondary special education .............. 45
Figure 2.5. Number of early school leavers has decreased substantially ............. 49
Figure 2.6. Many youth work but typically only a few hours a week .................. 51
Figure 3.1. Workers with a mental disorder work in jobs of slightly
poorer quality..................................................................................... 63
Figure 3.2. Dutch companies devote more attention to the management of
psychosocial risks than companies in other European countries ....... 67
Figure 3.3. Incentives to address psychosocial risks are low, while
barriers are high ................................................................................. 68
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: NETHERLANDS © OECD 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS –
Figure 3.4. Sickness absence in the Netherlands dropped considerably
but remains above the OECD average ............................................... 70
Figure 3.5. Sickness absence and reduced productivity both increase
sharply with poorer mental health ..................................................... 71
Figure 4.1. A major share of people receiving income-replacement benefits
suffer from a mental illness ............................................................... 91
Figure 4.2. Vangnetters form a vulnerable population ........................................ 95
Figure 4.3. Sick vangnetters receive much less reintegration support than sick
employees .......................................................................................... 96
Figure 4.4. Very few vangnetters on long-term sick leave resume work ............ 97
Figure 4.5. Three in four claimants enter the WIA system with
a full disability benefit ..................................................................... 101
Figure 4.6. Low employment rate for WGA beneficiaries with mental
ill-health ........................................................................................... 104
Figure 4.7. One in five Wajong beneficiaries has a mental disorder ................. 108
Figure 4.8. Almost all Wajong beneficiaries with a mental disorder
are in the work scheme .................................................................... 109
Figure 5.1. Only a minority of people with a mental disorder are treated ......... 129
Figure 5.2. The Netherlands is one of the least reliant countries
on antidepressants ............................................................................ 132
Figure 5.3. Nearly half of the people treated in mental health care
have no mental disorder ................................................................... 134
Tables
Table 3.1. About half of the Dutch companies do not comply with
the labour law .................................................................................... 65
Table 3.2. The Netherlands has a generous sickness benefit system .................. 78
MENTAL HEALTH AND WORK: NETHERLANDS © OECD 2014
