Grant: Catalyst Grant: Work Stress and Wellbeing Hackathon

There is a particular need to tailor mental health interventions to the needs of Canadian Indigenous people. Cross-cultural considerations and difficulties recruiting and retaining skilled workers in rural and remote regions may contribute to poorer service use for the Indigenous population. Indigenous individuals are less likely to seek help for mental health and accordingly, have rates of suicide at least twice as high as non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous individuals who have a solid management of stress in the workplace tend to have better health. Yet, cultural safety in the workplace is a concern and a cause of stress for Indigenous persons. E-health interventions are an attractive style of reducing mental stress in the workplace as they are relatively inexpensive, accessible for rural and hard to reach populations, and easy to administer. The anonymity of e-health interventions prevent stigmatization of the individual - a factor that is of particular importance in working individuals. The proposed project has the potential for significant contribution in 3 important ways: 1) To fill the identified gap and provide Indigenous employees and employers with culturally relevant knowledge regarding mental health and resources accessible to them; 2) To provide Indigenous workers with an opportunity to conduct a self-assessment of their mental health situation and provide suggestions for improvement; and 3) To gain an understanding of the distribution of the burden of mental health issues in the Indigenous community through the collection of e-mental health usage data. These contributions have the potential to increase Indigenous participation in employment, reduce work disability, and improve the mental health of the Indigenous population. This will return economic and health benefits to Indigenous employers, communities, families, and individuals.