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Population Level Interventions to Control Psychosocial Risks: Problems and Prospects

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Derailed Organizational Interventions for Stress and Well-Being

Abstract

We describe, thus far, the results of a population level intervention to decrease the exposure to psychosocial risks in the UK working population – and, by so doing, reduce the incidence and prevalence of common stress-related health conditions – these assessed against 10 year targets. We developed a series of Management Standards consisting of six factors that are known to impact on psychological health and wellbeing. It was intention that these would be rolled-out across the UK workforce by implementing them at an organizational level. Alongside the Management Standards was an Indicator Tool that gave scores on each of the six factors to measure current and future performance. Using this tool we did national level surveys on an annual basis from 2004 (when the Standards were introduced) until 2010 when the programme ended. The data indicate a mixed picture. Some measures showed significant improvement, some showed no change and one (control) significant worsening over the period. We discuss some possible reasons for this partial failure.

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Correspondence to Colin Mackay .

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Mackay, C., Cushion, P., Palferman, D., Buckley, P. (2015). Population Level Interventions to Control Psychosocial Risks: Problems and Prospects. In: Karanika-Murray, M., Biron, C. (eds) Derailed Organizational Interventions for Stress and Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9867-9_6

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