About us

History

For 20 years, researchers at the Research Team on Work and Mental Health (ERTSM) have designed and validated an innovative biopsychosocial model to understand how work and non-work factors, as well as individual characteristics, influence mental health problems.

These factors represent one of the main causes of absenteeism at work. In 2018, Mercer Canada estimated that Canadian societies suffer a yearly loss in productivity estimated at $ 16.6 billion dollars, stemming from workers declaring themselves invalidated because of mental health issues. The Conference Board of Canada estimates the loss from work absenteeism at $ 20.7 billion of gross domestic product for 2012 and $ 29.1 million for 2030.

Work is a powerful determinant of health; monitoring its influence on health would make it possible to obtain important evidence for intervention action and decision-making and, ultimately, to improve the health of the population.

In order to better understand and prevent health and well-being issues affecting the workforce and to better intervene in the workplace, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Université de Montréal, in partnership with the Institute for Public Health Research of the Université de Montréal (IRSPUM), now the Center for Public Health Research (CReSP), created the Observatory on Health and Well-Being at Work (OSMET) on march 13, 2018.

This creation was made possible thanks to the generosity and concern for developing knowledge in the field of health and well-being at work of the founding partner donors: TELUS Health (formerly LifeWorks), McKesson Canada (from 2018 to 2022), Medavie Foundation and Pratt & Whitney Canada.

Objectives

The purpose of OSMET is to understand and prevent health and well-being issues that affect the workforce, and to intervene in workplaces, including:

• Understand the contribution of workplace, family, local community factors, as well as individual characteristics, that influence the health and well-being of workers.
• Determine the work conditions and human resource management practices that promote the maintenance of a favorable physical and mental health status, with the goal of designing and evaluating interventions for early career employees, 50 years and older workers, and immigrant workers.
• Offer businesses in Quebec and Canada, an easy access to a help desk where they can submit questions related to the management of health and well-being at work and to receive timely, clear and easy-to-understand, scientific evidence-based answers.

This content has been updated on 12 June 2023 at 23h18.