Assessing the psychosocial work environment of migrant and non-migrant workers in inpatient mental health centres: A feasibility study

The number of migrant workers in Germany has increased over the last decades and will probably further increase in the context of a growing cultural diversity of the population and shortage of skilled professionals. Since migrant workers face different challenges, they may experience poorer psychosocial work environments than non-migrants. A negative psychosocial work environment can increase burnout and depression symptoms. To this date no study has investigated differences in the perceived psychosocial work environment in the mental health field. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a cross sectional study comparing the perceived psychosocial work environment of migrants and non-migrant workers in inpatient mental health centres in Germany. The study was conducted in four inpatient mental health centres in Germany using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. All staff members (N = 659) categorized in seven professional groups were invited to participate in the study. The feasibility of the study was determined by four criteria (1) Implementation of the study in inpatient mental health centres (2) Representativity of the sample (3) Reliability and usability of the questionnaire and (4) Variability of collected data. Three of four feasibility criteria were achieved. The study was successfully implemented in four mental health centres, the usability of the used questionnaire was confirmed as well as the variability of the data. The targeted response rate was partially met, and the total number of migrant workers could not be provided, which limits the representativity of the sample. In conclusion, a main study is feasible, but an effort must be put in an effective recruitment strategy to obtain valid results.