Canadian construction workers fared better than others in terms of mental health since the pandemic began, a new report suggests.
“It is better and has been consistently better throughout this period and I do think it’s because of employment,” explained Paula Allen, global leader and senior vice-president, research and total wellbeing with LifeWorks, which publishes the Mental Health Index.
“People who felt that their employment was shaky or could change that was an added factor. The fact that a lot of construction has continued, and residential construction in particular has continued, has been a protective factor but not protective in every respect. We’re still at negative 9.9 (for the construction sector).”
The index released in June by LifeWorks, a provider of technology-enabled wellbeing solutions, reported a negative mental health score among Canadian workers in all sectors for the 14th consecutive month. The mental health score was -11.2 which is lower than the April score of -10.7, indicating a slight decline in mental health. The scores indicate a reversal in a trend of steady inclines that began in December 2020, the report states.
Construction sees drop in mental health compared to 2019
While the construction sector has been relatively stable in terms of mental health since the pandemic began, there has been a drop from 2019.
“I think we would be kidding ourselves if we said we were in a perfect place then,” Allen stated. “We were better but there was room for improvement and now we’re more compromised. I think we at least want to get back to where we were, which is not impossible to happen, but it won’t happen by itself. It won’t happen without some really careful investment from people on an individual level and businesses and governments can support that as well.
“We can’t just say, ‘OK everybody is in this boat so I’m not going to worry too much about it because everybody is affected.’ Well no, everybody is in this boat so everybody needs to take some action.”
Remaining stable is not necessarily a good thing, Allen pointed out.
“Right now we’re not in a great place,” Allen explained. “When we see this kind of decline, when we see optimism go down, when we see anxiety symptoms go up, when we see drinking behaviour go up, all of these signs and we say we are no worse than we were last April, but this has been a long period of time that we have been experiencing this. Like any health issue the longer you are in a difficult place the more difficult it is to recover.”
Change and uncertainty could cause drop in mental health
According to the report, December was a low point and since then there has been a bit of an upswing in 2021 until now.
“When you think about what’s been happening, we’re getting the vaccines, we’re starting to see the end of the tunnel, we’re seeing increases in optimism and then we saw a little drop in May,” said Allen. “What is happening right now is we’re going through another phase of change and change is very stressful.”
As things reopen, people have a lot of new concerns and questions, she added.
“I think we need to be cautious about saying we are all getting more optimistic so things are going to improve in a linear way,” Allen noted. “That generally isn’t the way it works and certainly our circumstances aren’t going to support that so we’re still in a high-risk period.”
One the most vulnerable groups in terms of the substance use and mental health overall is post-secondary students.
“As they are moving into the workplace from universities, colleges and trade schools, this is a group that is going to need a little more attention than the cohorts before,” said Allen.
“This is the workforce of tomorrow, so as employers are thinking about their programs, I really want them to think about these interventions for mental health and substance use with a long-term view, not just because we’re in a pandemic situation. It’s going to impact the population that we have right now for a much longer than what people think. Research says that the impacts of the pandemic can last three to five years at minimum.”
The June report also contains a section on substance use which will be explored in a Daily Commercial News special feature series that will delve into multiple layers and reports. Watch for our coverage.
Follow the author on Twitter @DCN_Angela.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed