Publications and Resources

How to use this tool? Organizations can positively impact workers’ mental health and well-being while reducing the risks and efects of operational stress injuries (OSI). This organizational self-refection tool is designed to assist paramedic service organizations in identifying their strengths and areas for improvement to address OSI during an infectious public health crisis (e.g., COVID-19, SARS, Ebola, etc.). This organizational self-refection tool lists evidence-informed recommendations based on the Ten Organizational Elements presented in the Guideline for Paramedic Service Organizations to Address OSI during Infectious Public Health Crises (henceforth referred to as the “Guideline”). This self-refection tool should be used in conjunction with the Guideline. Addressing OSI in the workplace requires an integrated, coordinated, and continuous approach. To refect this, each section of this tool asks you to indicate the status and implementation of: 1) the existing organizational policies and infrastructure; 2) ongoing practices; and 3) specifc initiatives and programs that were available during an infectious public health crisis. At the end of each section, space is provided for you to document the lessons learned and any additional organizational activities that have not been listed. This is NOT an assessment or compliance tool but rather a refection tool. Although organizations should strive towards achieving most of the recommended check-list items (presented in green), the degree of how much each of the items, or the combination of items, would impact paramedics’ risk for OSI is currently unknown.

On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since this announcement, working from home (WFH) has become a necessary measure to mitigate the potential transmission of COVID-19. Millions of Canadians have had the way they live, work, and interact with their communities suddenly and significantly change. With a peak of 5.4 million Canadians in a WFH arrangement during the pandemic (Statistics Canada, 2021a), a national survey aimed to capture how Canadians are faring, and how WFH has impacted their mental and physical wellbeing. Led by the Canadian Institute for Safety, Wellness & Performance (CISWP) and in collaboration with La Trobe University in Australia, we surveyed Canadians across the country between October 27th and December 21st, 2020. During this time frame, there was an average of 5,270 new cases of COVID-19 per day in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2021b). Questions focused on respondents’ mental and physical health, and work-life conflict associated with their WFH experience. At the time of survey completion, over 90% of respondents were working full time hours in a WFH setting. We present a preliminary descriptive summary of the initial results. We begin with a demographic overview of our respondents, outline major findings associated with stress and mental health, and highlight the results surrounding physical health. We then present results focused on work-life conflicts and conclude with additional key takeaways. This report includes several infographics to present detailed descriptive analysis of key findings