ABSTRACT
The aims of this review are to describe (a) the empirical evidence supporting the establishment of mental health intervention programmes in the workplace and (b) the basic elements of an occupational psychiatry programme with a major preventive intervention component. On a conceptual level, occupational psychiatry may be considered a branch of occupational medicine which has as its primary goals the identification, treatment, and prevention of occupationally related diseases. Implicit in the interventionist approach of occupational medicine is the acceptance of three sets of hypotheses to be developed more fully in this chapter.
