Norito Kawakami
Project Professor of Digital Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of TokyoCurrent Position：
Project Professor of Digital Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
Education：
Graduated School of Medicine, Gifu University in 1981 (receiving MD)
Graduated Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo in 1985 (majoring Social Medicine) (receiving Doctor of Medical Science)
Professional Experience：
1985 – 1990 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
1990 – 1991 Visiting Researcher, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA
1991 – 1992 Visiting Researcher, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
1992 – 2000 Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan
2000 – 2006 Professor, Department of Hygiene & Preventive Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmaceutical Science, Okayama, Japan
2006 – Present Professor, Department of Mental Health, School of Public Health, the University of Tokyo
2013 – 2020 Head, School of Public Health, the University of Tokyo
2015 – 2021 Vide dean, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo
2022 Professor Emeritus, The University of Toyo
Board, The Junpukai Foundation
Project Professor of Digital Mental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
2023 President, The Junpukai Foundation
Special Honor：
Received the Award from the Japan Society for Occupational Health in 2013.
Received the Medical Award of the Japan Medical Association in 2013.
Received the Award from Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2019.
Received the Medal with Purple Ribbon from The Emperor of Japan in 2020.
Speaking Topics
Promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace: a global trend and new challenges to occupational health
The presentation will first describe a global trend of promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace, introducing three recent international publications: The WHO Guidelines on mental health at work (2022), the WHO/ILO Policy Brief (2022), and the Lancet discussion paper on work and mental health (Rigulies et al., 2023). The WHO Guideline has recommended 12 types of interventions to promote mental health and well-being of workers based on available scientific evidence. The WHO/ILO Policy Brief further classified these interventions to three groups: (1) preventing harm from poor psychosocial work environment, (2) protecting & promoting mental health, and (3) supporting workers with mental health conditions, with an emphasis of establishing a PDCA management cycle and listening voices of workers including those with mental health conditions. The Lancet discussion paper demonstrated the impact of poor work environment on mental disorders, and proposed three approaches for mental health and well-being of workers (i.e., prevent harm, promote the positives, and respond to problems), echoing views indicated by the WHO/ILO Policy Brief, and also proposed six national-level recommendations. These publications provided a global standard basis for promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace.
New challenges arose to occupational health as companies realized their business need to promote worker mental health and well-being. For instance, a movement toward positive mental health or mental well-being is driven by the motivation of companies/organizations to increase work performance of employees, integrated in human capital management. Occupational health professionals are required to define their roles and find a way to work effectively with employers and employees to achieve this goal. Another challenge is how to tackle with social factors in the workplace. Social isolation and loneliness has received attentions in the COVID-19 pandemic, which are known to have adverse impacts on physical and mental health. Occupational health professionals need to be aware of workplace loneliness and develop an approach to prevent and take care of workplace loneliness. The other challenge is an increasing use of digital mental health (DMH) services such as pulse surveys and stress management apps in the workplace. Evaluations of the effectiveness of these DMH services should be more eagerly done. In addition, these services should be used as integrated into a coordinated action in the workplace.
