Job Reintegration For Depressed Women At ‘Second Chance’; Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract

The present paper reproduces a part of spring 2013 master’s thesis findings carried out in Sweden, at the University of Gothenburg and has never been published before. It focuses on human rights of depressed women in the process of their job reintegration at ‘Second Chance’ with critical eye on the Rwandan situation in general. It explores the difficulties people with mental disability, particularly women with depression, face in finding jobs. The analysis targets policies, programs and strategies referred to by ‘Second Chance’ to assist or prepare depressed women to join the labor market, and enjoy equal opportunities as encouraged in the 2013 World Social Work Day theme of promoting social and economic equalities (Baily, 2013). Data was collected from five women at ‘Second Chance’ using semi-structured interviews. Observation, field notes and documentation were supplements to interviews while Triangulation and Thematic Content Analysis were used for data analysis. Because the study was purely qualitative, I did not use any statistical test or method for analysis. The collected data was corroborated by previous researchers such as Lerner and Hanke (2008) who argue that populations with depression are vulnerable to unemployment as depressed women at ‘Second Chance’ explained in their interviews. There is a series of services however in the organization for these depressed women to cope with and recover from their disorders. These include job coach, education; both formal and social codes, research, social supports such as employment, assistance, self-help and peer support among others. It came to the researcher’s attention that the target population prefers to return to work as soon as possible rather than remaining off work to facilitate the reintegration process in the workforce.

Keywords: Job Reintegration, depression, human rights.