Building Stronger Workplaces

“Many people still hold harmful attitudes about mental illness,” Dr. Vicki Kristman says. “For instance, it’s common for people to say they wouldn’t want to sit next to someone with any kind of mental health disorder.”

Dr. Kristman—the director and senior scientist of the Lakehead research institute Enhancing the Prevention of Injury and Disability at Work (EPID at Work)—wants to change negative attitudes and make it easier for anyone struggling with their mental health to get help.

That’s why EPID at Work is spearheading a multi-year study to pinpoint factors that affect mental wellbeing in the workplace. “Organizational culture plays a big role in whether employees have high or low mental health,” Dr. Kristman says.

Being a vulnerable worker also dramatically raises a person’s risk of experiencing a mental health disorder because vulnerable workers—a category that includes older workers, younger workers, Indigenous workers, immigrant workers, and gig economy workers— often have less power and autonomy over their jobs.

Dr. Kristman’s project, which is the largest cohort study ever conducted in northwestern Ontario, is being done in collaboration with some of the community partners EPID at Work has developed relationships with over the years including: the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (through the Superior Mental Wellness @ Work project), and the Nokiiwin Tribal Council. 

The project, which is called the “Northwestern Ontario Workplace & Worker Health Study (NOWWHS),” assesses people’s health when they enter the study. If an individual subsequently develops a mental health disorder, researchers will be able to identify any workplace factors associated with the condition.

Dr. Kristman says that economic turbulence is pressuring companies to do more with less, often resulting in heavier workloads for employees, which may lead to more workplace stress. The NOWWHS study has found that 24.8 per cent of their participants are experiencing depression and 38 per cent are experiencing burnout.

“We’re looking at the prevalence of mental health disorders in northwestern Ontario workplaces sector by sector because this information is unknown,” Dr. Kristman says, “then we’ll dig into these challenges. Miners, for example, are usually away from home for at least two weeks at a time, isolating them from their families. Their loneliness is compounded because there may be little for them to do when they have downtime at the mine, so how can we make that better? Would doing something simple like setting up a games room for them help?”

The wide-reaching scale of the study means that it could become a powerful tool for change. “The aim is to get the numbers, monitor them, and make things better,” Dr. Kristman says.

EPID at Work’s findings will be passed along to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, which funds EPID at Work's research, so that the ministry can take action to improve workplace mental health.

EPID at Work’s research is focused on three areas—mental health in the workplace; equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace; and knowledge mobilization and implementation to turn their findings into concrete programs and interventions.

EPID at Work also plans to work with employers to create and test cost-effective interventions such as mental and physical health injury prevention programs. “Mental health disorders are often a secondary consequence of physical injuries,” Dr. Kristman explains.

The NOWWHS study, which began in 2023, is already revealing sobering findings. “Northwestern Ontario has shockingly high levels of mental health disorders including depression, anxiety, PTSD, burnout, and low mental wellbeing. These rates of illness are due, in part, to the large number of health-care workers in the study—many of whom have suffered because of the pandemic.”

Dr. Kristman encourages workers to share their perspectives and make northwestern Ontario a better place to work by completing the survey at www.workinghealth.ca.