mWorks provides personalised and customised support that users can carry with them in their pockets at all times. The idea is that the app will become a place where users can gain energy and find a starting point to move forward. mWorks helps to get an overview of available support and the strategies that may be needed, and assists the user in creating a plan going forward.
Today, support in the rehabilitation chain is distributed among various actors and the division of responsibilities is unclear. The consequence is a gap in the chain, with long-term sick leave as a result. According to the research, this contributes to a downward spiral of mental illness, low self-esteem and exclusion.
– Previous research indicates that the support is fragmentary and difficult to monitor, so people fall between the cracks, says Ulrika Bejerholm, an occupational therapist and Professor of Mental Health Research at Lund University.
A number of actors are involved in sick leave; in healthcare there is the physician who writes certificates of illness and other rehabilitation staff; the Swedish Social Insurance Agency administers the case, processes certificates, grants compensation, etc.; and then there is the employer, who is responsible for the work environment and the employee’s well-being and return to work. For a person who is not feeling well, these sprawling interactions take a lot of energy and can prolong the sick leave.
Breaking the negative spiral
– In addition to the fragmentary support, the rehabilitation chain currently focuses on diagnosis, disability and activity impairment, and on establishing what doesn’t work. So the person on sick leave ends up being railroaded into thinking, ‘Me? I can’t do anything, can I?’ In mWorks, we do the opposite. We break the negative spiral and turn the difficult into the possible. We say, ‘Okay, but what strengths do you have, what do you want, what support do you need to move forward?’. We believe that this will cause the sick person to get involved, gain control and be able to participate in planning and reviewing their situation. The new perspective is contagious and mWorks thus changes the process for everyone — for the individual, healthcare, authorities and the employer, says Ulrika Bejerholm. mWorks is a practical support provided by treatment staff to the sick person that complements their usual job and highlights the individual.
mWorks has an educational process that creates a cohesive experience. It guides users with a chatbot and has simple steps that can be done at one’s own pace. Ulrika Bejerholm calls the first stop “My mWorks”. Here users can get their bearings, exhale, and find some new hope and motivation again. Then they move on to the “5 steps back to work”. The setup is simple and transparent, conserving the user’s energy. “It’s not a quick fix,”Ulrika Bejerholm stresses, “but it allows the individual to catch up with herself and start believing in herself again — and we think that helps.”
Now the app will be tested in real life – mainly in Region Skåne, but also in other regions. There is also an international interest in the app, says Ulrika Bejerholm. Rehabilitation coordinators and other care and support contacts will distribute mWorks and monitor the app’s use over a 10-week period.
– We’re starting in Region Skåne. A randomised controlled trial will start after the summer, where half of the people on sick leave will be chosen at random to use mWorks as an addition to the usual support, and the other half will continue as before, without mWorks. We’ll follow the users for 12 months. We believe that the project is particularly important right now, during the prevailing pandemic.
