On June 20, Jetty Zijlstra-van der Weide successfully defended her Professional Master Thesis Educational Studies (MEd). That is quite a while ago, but the decision to announce this defense was made at the end of July, and I thought that the theme of the thesis was way too important to publish this summary during the holiday month of August.
The theme of the thesis is mental power (resilience) of young professionals in mental health care. This theme is important because mental power, resilience and vitality are issues many professionals face during their lifetime, also within the mental healthcare system itself. The key message of this thesis project is that mental resilience or health can be developed. Statistics underline the severity of the problem: professionals with an age up to 35 years are those who most frequently suffer mental illness, 25% of them have burn-out symptoms, are overrepresented in statistics on absenteeism due to illness (especially in the education and care sector), so the young working generation is perceived as a vulnerable group.
Continue reading Developing Mental Power of Young Professionals in Mental Health Care