Ingunn Bjarnadottir Solberg

Academic Affiliation

Research Institute at Modum Bad.

Research project

In my doctoral thesis (at the University of Oslo) I examined how occupational and work-related factors influenced doctors’ job satisfaction, among other. By comparing studies on doctors’ job satisfaction across countries, my thesis shows that doctors, regardless of economic recession or other extrinsic factors, seem to share common satisfaction with intrinsic job characteristics, such as autonomy. Some scholars argue that there has been a paradigm shift in occupational psychology. Earlier, there was a more ‘work orientated’ approach, with the view that it is the work that influences the worker, and where the interventions among employees on sick leave included, among other, enhancing facilitation at work. Such approach and interventions do not seem to have led to an overall decrease in sickness absence. Now it seems as there is an ongoing shift to a more individual approach in the field, with promising results for work participation, with interventions such as IPS, Individual placement and support.

The goal of the current pilot study, at the Department of depression at Modum Bad, is to develop a model with the aim of helping young adults with depression to return to education and/or employment. The pilar of the model is an interdisciplinary communication between social services and health services. The patients choose what they want help with (what they find difficult) in relation to employment/studies. With the help of ISTDP approach we plan to examine what unconscious mental mechanisms interfere with the patients’ autonomy, competence, hope and feelings. Job specialists (IPS) at the social services (NAV) help the patients to find a job he/she can use as a part of a 10-week inpatient treatment at Modum Bad. After this 10-week intensive job focused therapy, there will be regularly interdisciplinary meetings (every third month) with the focus on the patients’ needs and related conscious and unconscious mental mechanisms. After one year the patients are admitted to Modum Bad again (for one week this time). Here we plan to conduct focus group interviews with the aim to explore how the patients experienced the project in general, and the model in particular.

Researchers studying depression and affective disorder at Modum Bad: