An ongoing survey seeking feedback from Northwestern Ontario workers and employers about the state of mental and physical health on the job has already received more than 735 responses from 38 workplaces since it began last fall.
The Enhancing the Prevention of Injury and Disability at Work Research Institute says it continues to widen its gaze, with a recent promotion encouraging participants from Fort William First Nation.
“It’s a large study,” Lakehead University health sciences Prof. Vicki Kristman, one of the officials involved with the institute’s survey project, said on Wednesday.
“We’re reaching out to a variety of groups and organizations.”
The institute, which is based at Lakehead University, is seeking 300 respondents each from 20 industrial workplace sectors, including mining, health care, retail, forestry and agriculture.
So far, 65 per cent of respondents have been women, with most people taking part living in big cities, according to a regularly-updated website about the project.
Data derived from the survey will be used to have a sense of what workers and employers face on the job — including risks for depression and anxiety — and come up with “cost-effective” strategies to improve mental and physical health.
“Work can be a huge source of stress for people,” Kristman said. “My approach is what can be changed in the workplace, rather than focusing on the employee,” she added.
Kristman said the project, which is funded by the province, is to run for at least five years.
Though several hundred people have already taken the survey, Kristman said the institute wants to increase its sample size before commenting about what respondents have indicated so far.
“With a large sample size and a long-term goal, (the project) is hopeful that this study will become a powerful tool for change,” said an earlier project backgrounder.
Participants are asked to provide their names so that researchers can follow up with them every six months. Safeguards are in place to ensure employers don’t know if their workers are taking part, Kristman said.
“We only give employers aggregate information to help identify strengths and weaknesses related to workplace mental and physical health,” she said.
There is no deadline to take part in the survey, but participants must have been employed or self-employed in the past year and be at least 14 years old.
The survey can be found online at workinghealth.ca.
Written by Carl Clutchey, The Chronicle-Journal
