Access to Psychologists and Social Workers and Workplace Absenteeism in Ontario

  • Casey is a second-year Ph.D. student studying Health Economics at the University of Toronto. She has a background of working in health services research, particularly at the intersection between community health and mental health. She aspires to be a researcher who works towards eliminating disparities in accessing mental healthcare, working side-by-side with communities to ensure their perspectives are integrated into research. In her doctoral studies, Casey will explore gaps in providing mental health services in Canada, particularly for marginalized and underserved populations.

Poor mental health poses significant costs to working-age individuals, including reduced quality of life and loss of income, with amplified effects for equity-seeking groups facing suboptimal working conditions and barriers to accessing mental health support. Moreover, poor mental health generates negative externalities to the economy through lost productivity. Workers with poor mental health need access to adequate mental health services; thus, this project will examine the effect of visiting a psychologist or social worker for mental health reasons (i.e., psychotherapy) on workers' absenteeism in Ontario, considering potential variations among equity-seeking subgroups and by various occupation characteristics.

Using a retrospective pseudo-panel design constructed from the Canadian Community Health Survey, we will apply a bounding approach to analyze the effect of self-reported visits to psychologists and/or social workers on absenteeism. Such an approach can help account for unobserved factors and the bidirectional relationship between work and health. By demonstrating the potential for community-based mental health professionals to improve workforce mental health, this project will highlight the importance of these professionals as a vital resource to improve workforce mental wellbeing and reduce workplace absences. More broadly, results have the potential to inform decisions on improving workplace mental health support and expanding public mental healthcare.

This project is co-funded with Mitacs and iA Financial Group and is named in honor of Gowling WLG.