Improving Psychological Health & Safety in Health Care Workers Through Technology Based Support
About
Eastern Health is engaging in an exciting research project to determine if technology based support increases employee knowledge and uptake of psychological support services, in turn improving employee wellness factors and organizational healthy workplace indicators. This three year project will involve the development, implementation and evaluation of application based technology (from personal technology devices) which will incorporate internal and external supports to the organization as well as a built in peer “chat” function, allowing employees to gained timely and appropriate support and information about what is available for them.
Eastern Health is the largest employer in Newfoundland and Labrador, employing almost 13, 0000 employees, 82% of them are women, about 10% come from rural parts of the eastern region. The organization currently has below average engagement scores and significant rates of sick leave and absenteeism. This project aims to target all employees within the organization.
Primary Research Question
Will the use of technology to provide more accessible and timely employee mental health supports (including peer support) increase the organizations healthy workplace indicators?
Who
Research led by Eastern Health.
Where
Districts covered by Eastern Health (all employees)
When
March 2019 – June 2022 *This project is completed.
Research Project Deliverables
Eastern Health’s project resulted in the development a novel chatbot that used artificial intelligence to provide relevant resources and supports to health care workers’ text-based queries, in collaboration with IBM.
Embedded in this application, which came to be known as the Employee Virtual Assistant (EVA), was a referral system for a simultaneously-developed peer support program called Peer-2-Peer (P2P).
The accompanying applied research informed the development of the application and evaluated effectiveness. In the first year, 3,509 meaningful interactions with the application occurred. Feedback on the EVA application was generally positive, with many finding it helpful, and many reporting that they would use it again and that they would recommend it to others.
This slide deck was presented at a Stakeholder Briefing on October 17, 2022.
This video was presented at the NL Workforce Innovators Roundtable 2021 on October 5.
