Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 1, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 2, 2026 - Mar 25, 2026
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A web-based self-management intervention for return-to-work among persons with common mental disorder on sick leave: A Case Study of mWorks
ABSTRACT
Background:
mWorks is a co-designed web-based self-management intervention developed to empower persons with common mental disorders on sick leave during their return-to-work process. However, a lack of knowledge regarding how the delivery and receipt of mWorks occur in practice impedes further progress. It is suggested that evaluations, according to the Medical Research Council framework, provide a format for studying to examine the contextual factors influencing implementation, how mWorks was delivered in practice, and how service users and professionals experienced and responded to the intervention.
Objective:
To evaluate the process of implementing the mWorks, specifically focusing on assessing the intervention's delivery in relation to the context, implementation process, and impact mechanism.
Methods:
This case study is limited to a single case study design. The case was bounded by the delivery period of 10-weeks in a primary and specialist mental health service context. During this period, return-to-work professionals (n=2) and service users (n=6) collaborated to initiate mWorks usage. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to triangulate multiple data sources.
Results:
The pandemic and mental health problems posed contextual barriers, particular during recruitment. However, the legitimacy of mWorks facilitated overall implementation. The delivery was performed according to plan with minimal adaptions. All users adhered to the intervention, and dialogue meetings were highly valued. mWorks was used flexibly according to users’ needs, both during sick leave and at work. The potential impacts included a transformative process for users, fostering acceptance, self-esteem, self-compassion, and a sense of control. It also had the potential to prevent mental ill-health, transform negatives into positives, facilitate disclosure of mental health, and support goal setting. The use of quantitative measures for empowerment, engagement, self-efficacy, depression stigma, and quality of life proved feasible and supported the assumptions and direction of results.
Conclusions:
The recruitment stage of the implementation program encountered significant contextual barriers. However, once the delivery stage began, the implement of mWorks proved to be feasible. Despite the limited scope of this study with a small number of participants, the triangulation of data suggests that both users and professionals benefited from mWorks.
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