Worker mental health distress is ignored by managers at their own peril but mentally unhealthy work conditions can be fixed, according to a new review of academic research.

The report comes as workers in air travel and health care struggle through understaffing crises that drive job dissatisfaction and mental health distress such as anxiety, stress and burnout.

The report, published by the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation, confirmed many mentally hazardous workplace conditions, including:

• working through pandemic outbreaks

• excessive jobs demands

• feelings of worker powerlessness

• harassment and violence from clients, patients or customers.

These factors have recently converged on workers in air travel and hospitals like a perfect storm.

The mission of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation is to inform and provoke important Canadian policy discussions, including in the area of health care. Read the full report here.

“From our study it’s clear, your work environment affects your mental health,” said Tom Parkin, the report’s author and worker health and safety expert. “The findings are interesting because they tell us Canadians’ mental wellbeing can be improved. Managers who want to retain staff have a job to do.”

“While our report confirmed changed workplace conditions can improve worker mental health, we also found there’s not much research on the exact factors to address. We’re going to fix that in the next phase of this project,” said Josh Bizjak, Executive Director of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation. “Improving the mental health conditions of our workplaces would be a huge step forward for Canadians.”

For more information:

Josh Bizjak, Executive Director – josh.bizjak@dcf.ca – (613) 857-2538