University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Monica Bertilsson

SENIOR LECTURER

School of Public Health and Community
Medicine
Telephone
+46 31-786 68 57
+46 766-18 68 57
Mail
monica.bertilsson@socmed.gu.se
Fax
+46 31-16 28 47
Visiting address
Arvid Wallgrens backe 2A, Hus 7, plan 3
41346 Göteborg
Postal address
Försäkringsmedicin, Avdelningen för samhällsmedicin och folkhälsa, Box 453
40530 Göteborg

About Monica Bertilsson

I am a PhD, lecturer in Public Health and a registered occupational therapist with extensive experience from psychiatric rehabilitation. My main research area is common mental disorders (CMD), work capacity, work place and managerial involvement and return to work after sickness absence. I am a member of the research program New Ways – mental health at work, aiming for new knowledge that will strengthen capacity in work life to support persons with CMD to keep their capacity to work and to contribute to a better competence in the health care to identify and treat patients with CMD and risk of sickness absence. I am also participating in the PRESA network (Swedish network for research on the prevention of sickness absence with common mental disorders) with researchers from the Universities of Gothenburg, Linköping and Lund.

For my thesis Work capacity and mental health – the phenomena and their importance in return to work (2013) I received the Lennmalm's award in Social Insurance Medicine by the Swedish Physician Society. From the thesis findings, we now run the project Capacity to Work Index (C2WI) developing an epidemiological instrument to investigate work capacity in relation to depression- and anxiety disorder. We use the instrument to explore professional’s work health after the implementation of person-centred care in hospital wards. In a new project we will investigate what factors will strengthen individuals’ work capacity and possibility to work despite CMD, a prospective study.

The work place and the managers are important for individuals’ work participation and I am the principal investigator (PI) for two projects targeting managers. In the project Managers perspective - the missing piece (ending in 2021) we are investigating manager's attitudes, knowledge and know-how in relation to supporting employees with depression and anxiety disorders. The project includes a survey with approximately 3 300 Swedish managers as well as qualitative studies. In our new project Managers in action: The importance of organizational and workplace context for managers’ measures for employees with CMDs we will use both a survey and individual interviews to investigate contextual factors at work and managers’ measures to avoid sickness absence in employees with CMD. The project departs from the hypothesis that manager's room for action is largely determined by pre-conditions, for example organizational structure and organizational climate.