National Government presented a strategy to improve the labor inclusion of people with mental illness

The Minister of Labor, Ángel Custodio Cabrera and the director of the Public Employment Service Unit, Angi Velásquez, launched the Labor Strategy built to promote the employment, formal and dignified links of people with mental health problems, it is also accompanied by the Guide on Adjustments to the Employability Route for provide comprehensive care through the Provider Network.

“For President Iván Duque's government, the mental health of Colombians is a very important issue. The national strategy, with a territorial focus, is an institutional effort to establish guidelines and tools so that the network of agencies and job boards authorized by the Public Employment Service Unit can better meet the needs that this population has around the search for work” , Cabrera said.

He added that 'LABoralmente' is materialized through Conpes 3992 of 2020, a document in which the Public Employment Service Unit, in coordination with the Ministries of Labor and Health and Social Protection, constructed technical documents for the design, formulation and implementation of strategies, programs, actions or services of promotion of mental health and prevention of mental disorder in the workplace.

“We hope that with these guidelines and tools from the SPE Provider Network, the labor inclusion of people with mental health problems can be improved,” said Minister Cabrera.

The director of the Public Employment Service Unit, Angi Viviana Velázquez, said “It is essential for us to improve the employability of people who have the most difficulty accessing the formal labor market, for this reason we create strategies to care for people with difficult placement, such as LABoralmente, because in this type of people work increases levels of autonomy, increases their self-esteem and achieves social recognition and economic independence”.

“We have been able to accompany the Public Employment Service Unit, from the technical teams of the Ministry of Health, to have a concrete tool that clearly and specifically guides the entities that, as operators of the Unit, have the responsibility of supporting people with mental health problems in order to strengthen skills that allow them to have better opportunities to access job offers,” added Gerson Orlando Bermont, Director of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

According to the Ministry of Health and Protection, in Colombia in 2021, nearly 24,000 interactions were carried out within the framework of teleorientation in mental health; it was identified that the main problems addressed were symptoms of anxiety, reactions to stress, symptoms of depression and exacerbation of symptoms of mental disorders previous. In addition, due to the health emergency declared by COVID-19, the disorders have been exacerbated, which leads to a major challenge in terms of employability.

Minsalud indicated that among the main problems in mental health issues facing Colombia is the increasing prevalence of depression, approximately 5% of the adult population, being the second leading cause of disease burden in Colombia. In adults, there is also a prevalence of life in affective disorders with 6.7% and the most commonly used psychoactive substances are alcohol and illicit psychoactive substances such as marijuana.

Regarding the rate of completed suicide, the portfolio stated that there has been an increase in recent years (4.49 in 2013 to 5.07 in 2017), mostly in young people, behaving the same behavior as the global trend; associated with the weakening of social support networks, the increase in mental problems and disorders and substance use psychoactive.

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