Mental health in the workplace: an ongoing challenge

The latest data from UdeM's Observatory on Health and Well-Being at Work shows that workplaces are still grappling with mental health. In Quebec workplaces, psychological distress and psychotropic drug use have fallen back to prepandemic levels, but symptoms of depression, anxiety and burnout have become more widespread. That's according to the latest data from a longitudinal study by the Observatory on Health and Well-Being at Work (OSMET), led by professor Alain Marchand of Université de Montréal's School of Industrial Relations. The study launched in 2019 to track the changing mental health of 6,602 people in 95 Quebec workplaces. The data was compiled in cycles that covered different workplaces over different periods: 2019-2021 (cycle 1), 2020-2022 (cycle 2) and 2021-2023 (cycle 3). By the time cycle 3 began, 38.6 per cent of all respondents reported feelings of psychological distress, while 12 to 15.9 per cent reported symptoms of depression or anxiety, 25.4 per cent reported burnout and 22.4 per cent used psychotropic drugs. Back to prepandemic levels.