Mental Health at Work Programme
Mental wellbeing is a success factor in working life and a driver of employment. The Mental Health at Work Programme emphasises the importance of adopting preventive measures and promoting mental health in working life.
The programme develops effective ways to promote and support mental health at work. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has implemented the programme in cooperation with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, mental health organisations, labour market organisations, other partners and an extensive stakeholder network since 2021.
The programme is part of Prime Minister Orpo's Government Programme as well as the implementation of the National Mental Health Strategy. In 2023–2025, the programme has been implemented through funding from the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland.
From an individual-orientated approach to development work that includes the entire work community
The key objective of the Mental Health at Work Programme is to shift the focus of support for mental health in working life from solving existing problems in an individual-focused way to preventing work ability problems. By taking proactive action, it is possible to avoid work ability issues and the costs arising from them.
Preventive development measures that promote mental health focus on the entire work community and benefit everyone. Addressing problems reactively or responding to work ability challenges only at an individual level is more expensive and results in the loss of labour input, such as absences due to illness or a drop in productivity. When wellbeing at work improves, so does productivity.
The more attention is paid to maintaining good mental health and managing work ability in work communities, the more often employees who experience strain can continue working. In situations where an employee has already fallen ill, individual support is needed for the employee to continue working or to return to work from sick leave.
Picture. Support for mental health at work
In the long term, the programme aims to prevent sick leave and retirement due to mental health issues and the costs arising from them.
Good mental health can be promoted in working life – tools, training and coaching for workplaces and occupational healthcare professionals
The Mental Health at Work Programme offers free tools and operating models that can be used, for example, to
- identify psychosocial stress factors at work and strengthen resources
- discuss matters related to mental health in the work community
- assess mental wellbeing at the individual level. The individual-level findings can be combined to represent findings at the workplace level
- plan the measures necessary at workplaces to strengthen mental wellbeing
- develop occupational health cooperation.
The Mental Health at Work Programme facilitates the sharing of information related to mental health by compiling this information on such electronic platforms that workplaces already use or that are user-friendly. The programme also takes into account workplaces that have not yet gained a lot of experience of supporting employees’ ability and capacity to work.
The programme offers various opportunities for developing mental health competence. There is a wide range of training and coaching available for various target groups, such as work communities, supervisors, employees, personnel of educational institutions and occupational healthcare professionals. In recent years, the programme has allocated special support to the healthcare and social welfare sector, the arts, cultural and event sectors, and the public sector. One of the focus areas of the programme is young people at the start of their working careers.
