Grant: Catalyst Grant: Work Stress and Wellbeing Hackathon

People who are underemployed or unemployed experience heightened stress due to lack of job security, financial concerns, unpredictable work hours, and resulting personal and family pressures. These stressors negatively impact people's job performance, their efforts to find secure employment, their physical and mental health, and their ability to manage practical aspects of their lives, including basic necessities such as food, housing, and child care. These burdens make it difficult to focus on personal mental health. DTC (Destress and Take Control) is an email-based application for electronic devices (smartphone, laptop, tablet, BlackBerry) to help underemployed and unemployed people reduce stress and manage daily life. The app will consist of three components: (1) stress-reduction activities; (2) a daily email prompting users to choose a stress-relieving activity and to take action on a specific stressor; and (3) links to services available in Toronto related to specific stressors (mental health counselling, employment counselling, food and housing supports, financial supports). Users of the app will interact with the program by registering their stress level and planning and reporting on their activities. They will be able to choose from a wide variety of destressing activities such as a lunch-time walk, yoga, stretching, meditation, and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, based on acupressure tapping points). Some of the strategies can be practised at work and others are for home use. In addition to daily emails, users can access the software at any time for stress reduction and information.