Course leader presentation: Ute Bültmann

Work Disability Prevention – Bridging research and practice
14th – 18th of June 2021, online

Short presentation

Ute Bültmann is professor of Work and Health, in particular from a life course epidemiological perspective, and Program Leader of Public Health Research at the Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine of the University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She graduated in Health Sciences from Maastricht University in 1997 and conducted her PhD research on “Fatigue and Psychological Distress in the Working Population: The Role of Work and Lifestyle” at the Department of Epidemiology at Maastricht University in 2002. Her research interests include the epidemiology of work and health and the measurement of health-related functioning at work.

From 2003 until 2007, she worked at the National Institute of Occupational Health in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is involved in collaborative research projects on labor market experiences and health in Denmark, Sweden and Canada. She is affiliated with the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, Denmark and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Her current research activities focus on adding a life course perspective to work and health research, and to translate the findings into relevant policy and practice measures to make a difference towards “healthy working lives”. She is a 2016 VICI laureate of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for her research on “Today’s youth is tomorrow’s workforce: Generation Y at work”.

Why is work disability prevention and integration an important and current issue to discuss in 2021?

Work disability prevention has evolved to a separate and growing discipline. This is due to the recognition that work outcomes are often not related with health outcomes, that the causes of work disability are multiple, complex, and often distinct from associated health conditions or treatments. Work disability prevention is an important and current issue to discuss in 2021, because work disability concerns an important personal, economic and social burden that is often preventable.

What do you want to say to the participants of the course?

The objective of the course is to transfer and exchange transdisciplinary knowledge on challenges related to work disability prevention and integration, with a specific focus on mental health problems.

In this ”Best of” course, three Work Disability Prevention topics will be addressed and integrated:

1. Introduction to Work Disability Prevention (including transdisciplinarity)
2. Intervention research in Work Disability Prevention (including organizational interventions)
3. Socio-political challenges with Work Disability Prevention (including implementation of evidence-based practice)

I am looking forward to meeting you all online!

More information: Course web page
Registration: Course registration
Last registration date: May 18th 2021