Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Successful Workplace Interventions for Psychologically Healthy and Productive Workplaces : A Pattern Analysis of 57 Systematic Reviews

Mental health in the workplace is a key topic in British Columbia, across Canada and internationally with a growing focus on the importance of creating and sustaining safe, healthy, productive and inclusive workplaces. This stakeholder-centred best evidence-based synthesis of systematic reviews searched Medline, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, CINAHL, PsycINFO, TRIP, REHABDATA (NARIC), REHAB+ (McMaster), and Health-evidence.ca (McMaster) published between January 1, 2000 and February 2016 to identify interventions that addressed: mental health symptomatology (depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.), job control, job demands, social support, stress management, and wellness (health promotion). Following deduplication 5,646 citations were reviewed by two or more independent reviewers. Following title and abstract review, 168 full text articles were reviewed against inclusion/exclusion criteria, resulting in 57 systematic reviews being included. Based on findings and trend analysis, the academic-stakeholder team proposed a framework for planning, implementing and evaluating interventions to mitigate psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Due to low quality evidence and experimental pre and post design of many studies recommendations should be considered with some caution noting the need for more rigorous monitoring of their implementation