Access to Psychologists and Social Workers and Workplace Absenteeism in Ontario

Casey Chu

Impact

  • This project contributed to a better understanding of the benefits of seeking mental health support for Ontarian workers, showing its positive impact on both individuals and workplaces.

  • These results highlighted the importance of supporting sustained investments in mental health resources, including access to psychologists and social workers.

  • Limited data on private mental health practitioners in Canada makes these findings valuable for understanding their impact on workplace well-being.

  • This project enabled the development and implementation of a community engagement plan with input from experts, providers and people with lived experience. This has the potential to inform policies aimed at reducing workplace absences, improving workplace mental health support and expanding public mental healthcare.

  • The researcher gained hands-on training in econometrics and coding both University of Toronto and at Minho University (Portugal) and enhanced previous technical knowledge.

“Through this studentship, I advanced my research for my PhD thesis, which focuses on workplace mental health and mental health service access. I gained knowledge and skills that will benefit the rest of my PhD and career.”

— Casey Chu

  • Ontario

  • Studentship

  • University of Toronto

  • Ontario Psychology Association

  • Mitacs, iA Financial Group, Gowling WLG Group

  • 2023-2024

  • Workplace Mental Health

  • People at work

About the Project

This project’s goal was to understand how mental health support can reduce absenteeism, especially for workers facing barriers to care, and to identify ways to improve workplace mental health resources. Firstly, it examined how seeing a psychologist or social worker for mental health reasons affected workers' sick days over a 10-year period in Ontario. Secondly, it explored how employees’ sick days varied across different population subgroups and demographics, particularly those with limited access to mental health support or in challenging work environments.

Methodology

This project used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to examine how seeing a psychologist or social worker affects how often people miss work. It looked at data from 2007 to 2016, focusing on working-age Ontarians with mood or anxiety disorders who had answered questions about mental health service use, and work-related absence. The study used a two-way fixed effect method to account for factors that could not be directly measured in the data, like individual attributes or changes in laws or the economy. It also controlled for factors like age and gender to better understand how mental health support relates to missing work.

Findings

  • Short-term Impact: No significant relationship was found between seeing a psychologist or social worker and workplace absences in the short term for workers with mood and/or anxiety disorders.

  • Delayed Benefits: A notable reduction in absences was observed two years after seeing a psychologist or social worker, suggesting a delayed positive impact on absenteeism.

  • Key Groups Affected: The delayed benefits were particularly evident for males and workers aged 52-64, indicating these groups may experience more significant improvements over time.

  • Occupation and Income: No significant differences were found based on occupation or income sub-groups, suggesting that the benefits of mental health visits are consistent across these factors.

  • Investment in Mental Health: These findings emphasized the importance of long-term investment in improving access to mental health services. The delayed impact suggests that sustained support is necessary for better outcomes for both individuals and workplaces.

Overall, the findings suggested that while mental health support may not have immediate effects, its delayed benefits on workers’ absence, particularly for certain groups, highlighted the importance of sustained investment in workplace mental health.

Project Outreach

Future work should implement and evaluate programs that expand access to psychologists and social workers to further support investing in such services. The next steps of this project aim to examine similar relationships for other provinces as well as other mental health providers (i.e., family physicians, nurses, psychiatrists) using data from the CCHS.

Resources Created

  • The results of this project will be included in a doctoral dissertation and are expected to be submitted for peer-reviewed journals.

  • The project has been accepted at multiple conferences and will be presented orally at the biennial International Health Economics Association congress in 2025.

  • Results were presented to the MHRC Board in June 2024

  • Implementation of a community engagement plan for analytical research.