LTC+ – Mental Health and Resiliency Resources for Healthcare Providers, Staff and Leaders

Welcome to the Long Term Care Plus (LTC+) Mental Health and Resiliency Resources for Healthcare Providers, Staff and Leaders page.

A crowdsourcing initiative entitled “Impacts of COVID-19 on Health Care Workers: Infection Prevention and Control” reported earlier this year that 70% of health care workers stated that their mental health was “somewhat worse now” or “much worse now” compared with before March 2020 (Statistics Canada). It has also been reported that over 40% of Canadian physicians are in advanced stages of burnout, nearly 40% of nurses say that they feel a high degree of burnout and 14% of general nurses have tested positive for post traumatic distress disorder.

The resources listed below, while not exhaustive, use varied approaches to assist in providing support, guidance and tools for individuals, teams, leaders, and educators. These resources are designed for care providers, and it will be noted when they target LTC specifically. All materials in French are marked with an asterix and linked accordingly.

Section 1: General Resources for Healthcare Providers

• Mental Health Canada provides external COVID-19 Resources for healthcare providers:

  • * COVID-19 Psychologists giving back to front-line service providers from the Canadian Psychological Association provides a list of psychologists who have volunteered to provide services, listed by Provinces. (Available in French)

  • *“Psychology Works” Fact Sheets (cpa.ca) provides different fact sheets pertaining to COVID-19 (Available in French)

  • Resource Hub: Mental health and wellness during COVID-19 (MHCC) contains a variety of resources available in both English and French

• SafeCare BC Care For Caregivers presents psychological and emotional wellness tools with topic-based web resources, lists mental health support resources and provides ongoing free webinars. There is also a repository of pre-recorded webinars.

• Fraser Health Authority site Well-being and psychological supports provides various tools/checklists and videos to manage stress and anxiety. It also provides province specific immediate emotional supports contacts and counselling supports.

• Hamilton Health Sciences’ COVID-19: Resilience Support Toolkit presents the resilience framework Pause, Reset, Nourish (PRN) together with the webinar “Surviving the Surge”. There are also numerous other supports and tools.

• Alberta Health Services is offering free online classes for the summer and fall of 2021. The Wellness Exchange has 5 modules: problem solving, positive activities, managing reactions, helpful thinking, and healthy connections.

• *COVID-19 resources - Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists | Association canadienne des ergothérapeutes lists numerous resources; national, provincial and international. It includes a video series “Pathways to Resilience: Strategies for a World in Upheaval” The video is available in French .

• *Anxiety Canada has developed a brief resource, Helping Health Care Workers Cope with COVID-19-Related Trauma that provides education on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health concerns that could be faced by healthcare workers, staff, and leaders. Each short educational piece contains further resource links. It is also available in French.

• YouTube Videos on Resilience, Burnout, and Self Care:

  • Mental Health Resilience for Health Care Workers NIOH South Africa (2 hours)

  • Healthcare Compassion Fatigue (Psych Hub) (4.35 mins )

  • A Self-Care Action Plan (5 mins)

  • Foundation for Positive Mental Health - Resilience - A Cognitive Whiteboard Animation (3.5 mins)

  • Resilience in the workplace - animation (1.5 mins)

  • Building Stress Resilience for Healthcare Workers (32 mins)

Section 2: General Resources Designed for Healthcare Leaders and Educators

• Leadership resources are provided at COVID-19: COVID-19: HHS Resources. The materials can be reviewed can be reviewed in French by choosing the Google translation button on the website link above.

• The Mental health impact on healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is a YouTube source (4 mins) which provides some practical management strategies to assist healthcare workers

• *The Mental Health Commission of Canada has developed a series of virtual course offerings for Managers begin July 12, 2021 and can be located in English at The Working Mind and in French at L'esprit au travail.

• The Manitoba Government has produced a site which provides mental health resources for healthcare workers including videos and slide presentations: Mental Health Resources

• The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has created resources such as visual graphics that can be posted, videos, a conversation and action guide to help support staff wellbeing and a framework for improving joy at work. You can access using this link: Joy in Work There are also upcoming programs beginning in August.

• The University of Toronto has developed a model for supporting health care workers’ mental health during the COVID-19: An Institutional Model for Health Care Workers’ Mental Health During Covid-19

• “Psychological PPE”: Promote Health Care Workforce Mental Health and Well-Being produced by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, presents evidence-based recommendations to help provide protection and support of staffs’ mental health.

• Resource Centre - Workplace Mental Health | CAMH is designed to assist leaders to learn more about mental health and how to share their support. This site includes “playbook” for leaders, framework, and various other tools.

• Creating a Safe Space: Psychological Safety of Healthcare Workers (Peer to Peer Support and Other Support Models)

• Creating a Safe Space – Section 4: Canadian Best Practice Guidelines for peer to peer support programs

• Creating a Safe Space – Healthcare Worker Support Toolkit

Section 3: Resources Specific to LTC Healthcare Providers & Leaders

• Ontario Centres for Learning, Research & Innovation in Long Term Care has created several videos on YouTube located at TLC for LTC, featuring short positive messages from those living in long term care and family members thanking staff for their work and sacrifices.

• Mental Health Supports for LTC Team Members - Ontario Centres for Learning, Research, and Innovation in Long-Term Care provides numerous resources such as tool kits, weblinks for upcoming online sessions, webinar recordings, videos, and references to counselling, self-help, and peer support for use by LTC healthcare providers and leaders.

• Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program developed this workbook, LTC-Staff-Grief-and-Resilience-Workbook.pdf, to assist in work with individuals and families, and to promote the building of resilience and promoting self-care for long term care providers.

• Stress First Aid Toolkit for Long-Term Care Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic (researchgate.net) explains a stress continuum model that can be used to assess personal or staff stress responses. The toolkit also contains further resources for review.

• This resources provides a tool to update LTC operational plans to reflect COVID-19: A Tool to Update Long-Term Care Operational Plans Reflecting COVID-19 - Ontario Centres for Learning, Research, and Innovation in Long-Term Care

• There are numerous tools offered in a variety of subject areas by the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research, and Innovation in Long Term Care (clri-ltc). Links to the tools can be located on their resource page: Supports During COVID-19 - Ontario Centres for Learning, Research, and Innovation in Long-Term Care. These tools again can be used by individual health care workers, leaders, and educators. Examples of the subject areas are:

  • Long term care orientation training

  • Quality of life for those in long term care centres

  • Supporting and engaging families

  • Operations Resources

This is a living document – please send through any resources you would like added to the list and shared.

Please reach out to the LTC+ team via LTC-SLD@hec-esc.ca.