New Approaches to Health Management

“Mental health is an essential prerequisite for quality of life, functioning, and social participation,” states the introduction to the RKI’s special report on mental health in Germany. The spectrum of mental disorders or impairments to mental well-being ranges from mild symptoms to severe mental disorders. These are widespread and are associated with enormous individual, social, professional, and societal burdens.

At the Technical University of Kaiserslautern—as at many universities—it has become apparent since the start of the in-person semester that the number of students exhibiting depressive symptoms, symptoms of an anxiety disorder, and signs of burnout has risen rapidly. Data from the 2021 University Health Report clearly show that these figures have increased significantly across all departments at TU Kaiserslautern compared to the survey years 2018 and 2015. These findings are consistent with feedback provided to the Occupational Health Management department by staff members who work directly with students or serve in counseling roles. However, managers have also recently reported with increasing frequency that employees in their teams are experiencing mental health issues. The TK Absenteeism Report 2022for the Technical University of Kaiserslautern clearly shows that days of incapacity for work among the workforce have been steadily rising and have surged even further since the pandemic. Mental and behavioral disorders are the most common diagnosis for long-term absences, accounting for 24.2% of all sick leave days. Since 2019, the TU Kaiserslautern has thus been above the industry average of 19.3%, at 23.5%. All of this data, along with the many requests for help and feedback from all areas of the university, underscores the equally great and urgent need for action in this area.

In response, a “Mental Health” working group was formed by the steering committee of the Workplace Health Management program. The goal of this working group is to maintain and improve the mental health and resilience of employees. To this end, the current situation and existing services and resources at TUK and in Landau have been and are being assessed, and corresponding measures and approaches for the future are being developed.

Given the urgency of the matter, the first step was to immediately begin developing a concept—tailored to the university’s needs—for Mental Health First Aid training (mental health first responders) for employees. Initially, the training will be open to employees who are already serving in an advisory capacity for students or other employees. Programs for managers—such as lab team leaders or department heads—as well as for staff in cross-functional roles will follow. Work is also underway on the support structure behind the scenes. The university chaplains and the staff council were immediately won over to the cause, and procedures as well as points of contact for mental health emergencies at TUK and in the Kaiserslautern area have been compiled. This is because the regular waiting times for psychotherapy can be very long in some cases, and the employees of the future RPTU should receive counseling and support as quickly as possible. “We hope that through these measures and educational efforts, we can reduce the taboo surrounding this topic and the associated stigma, thereby achieving greater acceptance of mental health conditions and acute stress situations,” adds the Workplace Health Management team.

Melina Hanyßek, Occupational Health Management Steering Group