An Online Course for Improving Knowledge and Access to Mental Health Accommodations in Canadian Enterprises

Available research on mental health accommodations within the workplace suggests that employees with mental health concerns require accommodations (e.g., flexible scheduling, quiet spaces), but only a fraction of employees will receive the accommodations they have requested. Reported barriers to receiving mental health accommodations include concerns regarding stigma, lack of knowledge about appropriate accommodations, financial constraints of the employer, and size of the organization. While there is growing research on workplace accommodations, there is a paucity of research available on interventions aimed at improving accommodation usage, particularly within SMEs. To address this gap, the intent of the proposed study is to develop and implement an online psychoeducation course to increase employees' accommodation knowledge and usage within Canadian enterprises. Once the course is developed, reviewed, and implemented, an additional aim of the proposed study will be to test the efficacy of the course using a two-arm, randomized controlled trial comparing the intervention to a wait-list control group. A total of 86 participants experiencing workplace impairments due to a depressive and/or anxiety disorder will be randomly assigned to a psychoeducation group or wait-list control group. A 2x3 repeated measures (i.e., pre-course, at four weeks and eight weeks) mixed model ANOVA will be used to analyze the effects of the intervention on accommodation requests, knowledge of accommodations, absenteeism/presenteeism rates, employee self-efficacy, and psychological symptoms. The results of the study may be used to develop future offerings of the course and improve mental health accommodations practices within Canadian enterprises.