London researchers adapting military mental health program for health-care

London researchers are getting $2.8 million from Ottawa to help pandemic-battered health-care workers cope, rejigging an established mental health program for Canadian soldiers to assist frontline medical staff.

Researchers from the MacDonald Franklin operational stress injury research centre at Parkwood Institute will take the road-to-mental-readiness program, a mental health and resilience program created for the Canadian military, and tailor it for a health-care audience.

“We want to take this module, work with organizations and health-care workers and adapt it appropriately,” said psychiatrist Don Richardson, an associate scientist at Lawson and director of the MacDonald Franklin centre.

“Hopefully by adapting it to health-care workers, we will be able to improve their resiliency.”

The program, which is typically delivered in-person to Canadian military personnel, includes lessons on identifying and coping with mental stress and understanding how cumulative trauma can develop into mental health conditions including depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, Richardson said.

“We would like to improve the program's accessibility and reach to health-care workers . . . by bringing in some health-care specific examples and creating a web-based module that can be easily delivered remotely,” Richardson said.

The London team has 14 months of funding to get the military mental health module revamped into one for health-care workers, Richardson said.

Instead of starting from scratch on a new mental health and resiliency training program for health-care workers, it made sense to build on an existing one that has been successfully used in the Canadian military, he said.

Pandemic-related mental stress has been felt by everyone, Richardson said, but health-care workers have endured a specific kind of toll.

Staff absenteeism reached record highs during the Omicron-fueled sixth wave, leading to intense workload and overtime hours for the workers still on the job. Workers in COVID-19 wards had to deal with difficult situations, while ones in other departments grappled with uncertainty of future pandemic waves.

The rejigged military program is meant to reach workers and workplaces.

“We want to educate institutions to create an environment that supports wellness not just at the individual level, but at the institutional level as well,” associate scientist Anthony Nazarov said in a statement.

The MacDonald Franklin program is part of the Lawson Health Research Institute, the medical research arm of London's hospitals.

The clinic has a long history of treating military personnel, veterans and their families with the immediate and long-term mental effects of their service. The London team also conducts medical research on many mental issues in the military population, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

The $2.8 million earmarked for the London project is part of $28.2 million in federal funding

We would like to improve the program's accessibility and reach to health-care workers . . . by bringing in some healthcare specific examples and creating a webbased module that can be easily delivered remotely.

announced Monday for nine initiatives to address post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma in frontline and essential workers.