Workplace health promotion interventions for Australian workers with intellectual disability

Wellbeing and job satisfaction among employees with intellectual disability

Objectives

The workplace is considered one of the key settings in which to promote health and wellbeing. Reviews of workplace health promotion have shown that workplace interventions can positively impact on mental health, nutrition, and physical activity, and can impact positively on economic indicators such as absenteeism. One of the research gaps is workplace health promotion for people with an intellectual disability. This is an important gap to address as people with an intellectual disability have higher rates of avoidable mortality relative to the general population, increased rate of mental health problems, lower levels of physical activity, and poorer nutrition. People with an intellectual disability work across a range of industries and employment settings and it is important to understand potential strategies in supporting the health and wellbeing of this cohort within workplaces.

Methods

Forty-seven in-depth interviews were conducted with staff and supported employees from four organizations to examine job satisfaction and wellbeing experiences in the workplace and potential strategies for supporting health and wellbeing of people with an intellectual disability.

Results

The findings revealed that currently there is a strong emphasis on strategies such as mentoring and support, flexible approaches, and customized and varied roles to support mental wellbeing. There seems to be less focus on physical activity and nutrition with limited examples of strategies addressing these topics. There are also instances of bullying being experienced in open employment settings.

Conclusions

Further work is required to verify whether these results are consistent across the sector, but it does seem to illustrate that workplace wellbeing intervention models and strategies that are applicable in workplaces for the general population may not necessarily work in employment settings that are inclusive of people with an intellectual disability. The policy implication is that support structures so important to health and wellbeing within supported employment settings also need to be available in open employment environments. Further research and policy work is required to develop specific models and strategies that will be applicable to this population cohort within supported and open workplace settings.

Designing LTC Physical Work Environments to Support Worker Well-being: A Review and Recommendations

OBJECTIVES

Well-designed, health-promoting physical work environments have the potential to reduce burnout and attrition for employees who work in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Unfortunately, there is limited existing guidance for LTC facility owners and operators related to specific health-promoting design strategies for LTC work environments. This narrative review aims to fill this knowledge gap.

METHODS

Information was synthesized from healthy-building certification standards for health care and non-health care buildings, LTC design guidelines, academic studies, and expert commentaries. The review was conducted in 3 phases to (1) identify specific space types and design characteristics generally considered to be health-supportive, (2) gather existing research on the identified strategies to critically analyze their supportive value, and (3) communicate the findings to a broad audience of stakeholders.

RESULTS

Five specific space types and 21 design characteristics were identified as both supportive of employee health and well-being, and relevant to LTC physical work environments.

CONCLUSIONS

When health care organizations construct new facilities or renovate existing facilities, using these health-promoting design strategies should be considered. Benefits of health-promoting physical work environments include better employee mental and physical health, less burnout, and less turnover. Reducing burnout and increasing employee retention is essential to mitigate the ongoing staffing crisis in the LTC industry.

Workplace Structures and Culture That Support the Wellbeing of People with an Intellectual Disability

There is little research on health-promoting workplace settings focused on people with an intellectual disability. There are a range of supported and open employment workplaces where people with an intellectual disability work, and this is an important setting that can influence health and wellbeing outcomes. The health promotion research that has been conducted with people with an intellectual disability has been programmatic in focus and lacks a broader settings and ecological perspective. This paper reports on analysis conducted across four organisations that employ people with an intellectual disability and included 47 in-depth interviews conducted with staff and supported employees. The aim was to examine the organisational characteristics, structures, and cultural elements that contribute to positive wellbeing. The key elements were offering a diversity of roles and opportunities, customised training and task matching, a flexible approach to work rosters, offering a range of workplace environments (e.g., busy versus calm environments), and providing holistic and tailored support. The results illustrate that providing positive wellbeing outcomes in the workplace for this cohort cannot be considered from a program perspective but as a whole of organisation design and culture. With the current movement towards more opportunity in open employment, it will be important that these features are replicated in all workplaces where people with an intellectual disability are employed. Further research and policy work is required for this ambition to be realised.

A Settings and Systems Approach to Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of People with an Intellectual Disability

Research has shown that people with an intellectual disability have higher rates of certain preventable health conditions and a higher rate of avoidable mortality relative to the general population. With respect to health behaviours, they also have lower levels of physical activity and poorer nutrition. Despite the increased health needs, this population cohort is less likely to have the opportunity to participate in health promotion programs. The interventions that have been delivered are programmatic and individual in focus and have lacked a broader ecological and settings focus, which makes them very difficult to scale. Health promotion programs designed for the general population, such as lifestyle campaigns, rarely reach people with an intellectual disability. This increases the importance of ensuring that the settings in which they live and engage with are as health promoting as possible. Interventions have been particularly absent in the workplace for people with an intellectual disability. This paper highlights gaps in a settings-and-systems-based approach to promoting the health and wellbeing of people with an intellectual disability, particularly with respect to workplace health promotion. The paper concludes with recommendations for a systems approach that integrates approaches across multiple settings to better promote the health of this population cohort.

Workplace Health Promotion in German Social Firms-Offers, Needs and Challenges from the Perspectives of Employees, Supervisors and Experts

On the general labor market, social firms provide 30-50% of people with different types of disabilities the opportunity to gain employment. However, the topic of workplace health promotion (WHP), needs for improvement and accompanied challenges are neglected in the current research and were the focus of the present study. Therefore, data triangulation was used between July and December 2020 by combining three focus groups with employees (n = 14 employees) with 16 interviews with supervisors from several social firms in Northern Germany (e.g., from catering, cleaning or bicycle repair sectors). 17 semi-structured telephone interviews with experts in the field of WHP or social firms were added. All approaches were audio-taped, transcribed and anonymized. To analyze the data, Mayring's qualitative content analysis was used. The results indicated that several offers for WHP, including sport, nutrition and relaxation, were offered, as well as those on smoking cessation, cooperation with external organizations or training and education offers. Needs for improvement were stated referring to additional sport offers, support for implementing a healthy diet, offers for relaxation, financial incentives or collaborations with external organizations. A low take-up of offers; a lack of resources, structures or management support; compatibility of offers with work time and organization; challenges with available trainings or the consideration of individual needs and capacities were highlighted as challenges. Overall, there is a need for further interventional and longitudinal research on WHP in social firms.