The document summarizes the findings of a two-year EU project on mental issues in job centers. The project surveyed over 600 professionals in eight countries. It found that most job center staff encounter clients with emotional and mental problems daily but feel unprepared to help due to a lack of training. In response, the project developed a one-day training course covering the adverse mental effects of unemployment and improving staff communication and support skills. Staff who completed the course highly rated its benefits. However, the document notes jobseekers remain cautious about disclosing issues to staff.

1. 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.

2. 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