The view is widely shared that a person who (so-metimes unexpectedly) drops out from the labour market is likely to find himself in a very difficult situation. The fe-eling of worthlessness is likely to overcome him and soon material difficulties can occur; he may also have difficulty in spending use-fully the extra time available. The length of time spent in unemploy-ment is closely related to negative sentiments of worthless which increases as the idle months go by. The complex correlation between hope and motivation brings a notable change in the intensity of efforts and length of time the jobseeker can spend on job hunting. Modern science is also surveying this phenomenon, displayed on the Harrison graphs.

It is evident that lengthy unemployment can lead to mental disorders and intensify existing mental prob-

lems. Incidence of anxiety and depression are signifi-cantly higher among the long time unemployed.

In Job Centres; the ques-tion arises whether employees in Job Centres need to know about these phenomena. Do we need to confront admi-nistrators with these prob-lems? Are they at all interested about the emotional, mental state of the person sitting on the other side of the counter, and what can be done about

it? The employee will be aware about the intensity of the client’s job hunting and its progress on the one part, but is he in possession of the tools, the experi-ence and knowledge necessary to assess the state of mind of his client for offering him optimum help, and also how this negative state of mind will change after their meeting.

Mental Issues in Job Centres

The reason you are receiving this leaflet is because we wish to inform you about results of a two-year ongoing EU Project regarding employment

and human resources issues.

13/0030-L/6012

The Leonardo Program of the European Union has launched

(2013) a two-year Project titled:

“Mental Issues in Job Centres” to draw wider public attention to these problems and to seek

possible solutions.

The Project runs under Hungarian co-ordination, with participating organisations from Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey. During the past year surveys

were conducted in Job Centres by the various national training and other organisations to establish whether Job Centre staff are able to notice signs of mental disorders among their clients, and if yes are they capable and willing to offer any kind of help. “Does the mental state of your client influence cooperation?” – was one of the questions.

The related Job Centre questionnaire was completed by over 600 Europe-an professionals active in the field of

human resources.

Comparison of the national responses surprised everyone involved.

Much to our astonishment there were more similarities than differences among test results of the eight participating countries. The majority (75-90%) of Job Centre staff

are confronted on a daily basis by emotional and mental problems of their clients, and almost all of them would like to offer some sort of help. However in the absence of

necessary (and quality) training they did not feel competent enough to handle mental issues – but they are very much open to such training programmes.

It is evident from our findings that employees in Job Centres are encountering the negative emotio-nal/mental effects of unemployment among their clients, on a daily basis.

Based on results of our survey a training course was compiled (in 2014) for Job Centre staff with the help of a team of psychology and psychiatry professionals. The course was completed by hundreds of administration staff in the eight participating countries.

A communication guideline was also prepared as a supplement to the topic.

he one-day training course focuses on practical issues. During the course not only the adverse emotional/mental effects of unemployment are discussed, but also its consequences to the job se-eking activity. The programme is desig-ned to offer higher service quality and improved coping and communication tools to administration staff.

Attendees of the training course were as-ked to evaluate the programme; scores of mostly over 4 points were recorded on a scale of maximum 5 points. The course has become extremely popular among Job Centre staff and increased demand for more programmes was recorded in most countries.

Concurrently, a questionnaire was also compiled for the jobseekers. The comparison of these respon-ses showed greater differences by countries. For details of this survey please visit our website at: www.mentalissues.eu

In summary we can state that jobseekers are very cautious about disclosing information to Job Centre staff about their state of mind, how open they can be about their problems. They are reluctant to discuss possible frustrations with their administrator, the professional they have confidence in, and want to co-operate with, as it emerged from our surveys.

If you are interested in our ongoing work, please visit our website (above), or if you wish to have more information about our training programme please write to us on the following e-mail address:

info@orioldbooks.com

With compliments from the Project participants http://hu.orioldbooks.com/mijc