Abstract
Mental health problems are apparently a persistent barrier for labour market participation. However, an increasing political-economical pressure to activate workers and ensure labour market participation in the Danish welfare state aligns with users’ appeals for inclusion in a strong call for contextualized and non-dogmatic understanding of the relation between labour and mental health problems. This paper analyses what welfare professionals’ experiences integrating people diagnosed with mental health problems on the Danish labour market means for their understanding of the interplay between wage labour and mental health problems.
I draw on biographical and thematic interviews from an ongoing investigation of professionals’ work with the method Individual Placement and Support in the Danish welfare system, which I construe as an extreme case of the societal attempt to integrate people with a diagnosis on the ordinary labour market.
The analysis focuses on the paradox that the activation of the ’workers’ further convolutes the relations between the ‘user’, ‘client’, ‘citizen’ or ‘patient’ and the various professionals. This, in turn, generates learning potentials for a changed, contextualized understanding of participation in wage labour with a psychiatric diagnosis. However, in spite of an increasing suspicion that mental unrest is socially co-determined and mediated, the inter-professional collaboration is anchored in an individualized psychiatric diagnosis. I discuss what this means for the learning outcomes of the involved professionals.
I draw on biographical and thematic interviews from an ongoing investigation of professionals’ work with the method Individual Placement and Support in the Danish welfare system, which I construe as an extreme case of the societal attempt to integrate people with a diagnosis on the ordinary labour market.
The analysis focuses on the paradox that the activation of the ’workers’ further convolutes the relations between the ‘user’, ‘client’, ‘citizen’ or ‘patient’ and the various professionals. This, in turn, generates learning potentials for a changed, contextualized understanding of participation in wage labour with a psychiatric diagnosis. However, in spite of an increasing suspicion that mental unrest is socially co-determined and mediated, the inter-professional collaboration is anchored in an individualized psychiatric diagnosis. I discuss what this means for the learning outcomes of the involved professionals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 18 Jul 2018 |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Jul 2018 |
| Event | XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology: Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities - Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Canada Duration: 15 Jul 2018 → 21 Jul 2018 https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress/toronto-2018/ |
Conference
| Conference | XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology |
|---|---|
| Location | Metro Toronto Convention Center |
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Toronto |
| Period | 15/07/2018 → 21/07/2018 |
| Internet address |