Abstract :
[en] Background:
In 2022, in Belgium, approximatively 500,000 people are in long-term work incapacity, twice as much as 15 years ago. According to the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI, 2021), 36.8% of people in long-term incapacity attribute it to mental illness, among these 66,39% suffer from burnout or depression. These figures highlight that work-mental disorders, especially burnout, constitutes a major issue. This is confirmed by health professionals (HP) who also reported a higher rate of patients experiencing work-related mental disorders. These HP also pointed that they would need some more competencies and probably training to be able to efficiently treat these work-related disorders (Federal Public Service Social Security, 2020).
Method:
Through a qualitative approach, we conducted 18 interviews with HP including general practitioners, occupational physicians, psychiatrists, clinical and/or occupational psychologists and/or prevention advisors. The interview structure was created through an iterative process with two experts in occupational and educational psychology. The interview was based on the critical incident method, which allows to collect HP critical incidents within their consultations and to identify available and missing personal and job resources. Based on Paillé & Muchielli (2021), a thematic analysis was proposed and divided into 5 distinct stages: (1) a detailed transcription, (2) an identification of meaningful units, (3) a coding into themes and sub-themes according to a syntax defined by the field of study, (4) a hierarchical organisation of the themes, (5) a merging of similar themes while respecting the verbatim. A final step was to pick up the verbatim to list the needs for each theme.
Subsequently, we developed a questionnaire based on interview findings and administered it to HP to validate the identified needs.
Results:
The main findings highlight 11 general HP needs: to develop knowledge; to have burnout prevention and treatment related experience; to be trained (e.g. occupational clinic, tutoring); to have diagnosis and practical tools; to develop communication skills with patients, with others HP and work-environment actors; to have time (e.g. to diagnose, to network); to be able to self-develop as a practitioner, to be able to network and to work in a multidisciplinary way; to be able to connect practice with primary prevention; to have a well-defined policy, to receive updated information by Federal Public Services and INAMI. Within these 11 dimensions, we were also able to identify 69 sub-needs. The main sub-needs concern a better understanding of aspects derived from clinical and professional perspectives through training and knowledge development, collaboration between healthcare professionals and tools development. The questionnaire allowed us to validate the needs among 94 HP and to identify the cross-disciplinary and specific needs of each profession.
Conclusion:
This study, based on a mixed approach, explores the different needs encountered by HP during their consultations and interventions in relation to work-related issues. It allows to define specialised training devices that could be useful for HP involved in the treatment and to initiate and promote a multidisciplinary approach amongst HP to deal with work-related suffering.
