Social Epidemiologist and Associate Professor
Boston College School of Social Work
Presentation: Protecting and promoting mental health at work
Day 1 - 11:15AM - 12:15PM
Dr. Erika Sabbath is a social epidemiologist and associate professor at Boston College School of Social Work (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). She studies the ways that the workplace, especially workplace stress, affect worker health and well-being, and the ways that work contributes to health disparities in the population. She is the principal investigator of the Boston Hospital Workers Health Study, a U.S. CDC-funded study of 40,000 hospital employees in the Boston area.
Without good mental health, individuals and organizations cannot thrive. In this breakout, we will explore the role of employer policies and practices in protecting and promoting the mental health of the workforce. After learning about how the public health approach can be applied to workplace mental health programs, we will go through three case studies of workplace programs and policies that can both keep employees mentally healthy, and help detect mental health concerns early. We will finish by discussing the relationship between physical and mental health at work.
