Stephen Heidel

Workplace mental health consultation: A primer of organizational and occupational psychiatry

Though there are only a few hundred psychiatrists who identify themselves as specialists in organizational and occupational issues, the need for psychiatric skills in the workplace has increased dramatically in recent years. Crucial issues include distressed employees, the effects of organizational structure and change, job stress, psychiatric disability, substance abuse, and violence in the workplace. It is important for general psychiatrists to become more conversant in work and workplace-related mental health issues. Use of an occupational history with all patients, and knowledge of organizational structures and function, are just two ways to become more aware of these matters. With business and government increasingly attentive to mental health benefits and systems, appropriate psychiatric focus on organizational and occupational concerns becomes ever more important.