Building Psychological Safety in Long-Term Care: Strengthening Equity & Trauma-informed Organizational Capacity to Support Workforce Mental Health & Well-being

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected the most vulnerable in our society. Namely older adults living in Long-term Care (LTC) and the staff who care for them were hit the hardest with over 81% of all COVID-19 related deaths occurring in LTC facilities across Canada. This devastating tragedy shed light on the longstanding challenges of the lack of resources and support for the LTC sector at large but also the mental health crisis that long- term care workers experience as a direct result of their working environments, with 77% of workers reporting worsening mental health, burnout, distress and post-traumatic stress.There is urgent need to bolster psychological safety of LTC workplaces through implementing tools and supports that foster workplace cultures that are equity and trauma informed. Trauma-informed workplaces realize the prevalence and impact of trauma in both the people who receive services as well as the workforce providing those services so that programs recognize those impacts and respond in ways that reduce re-traumatization and promote psychological safety. The proposed research will build capacity to implement resources, and tools to support trauma-informed approaches (TIA) that can help address worker psychological safety which is grossly challenged in the LTC sector.Our research team brings together Principal knowledge users the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association (OPSWA), the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) and the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (WeRPN) with researchers, health workers and health system decision makers to:1)Engage & Partner with LTC workforce partners to co-design Equity & Trauma-informed organizational supports; 2) Build capacity through rapid implementation of co-designed supports; 3) Produce evidence on the implementation,evaluation,spread and scale of these equity focused solutions; and 4)Increase sector-wide capacity through knowledge mobilization .