A multi-year Ontario study will test whether one-on-one coaching can build resilience in first responders and healthcare workers before they develop work-related mental health injuries.
Those injuries have become a significant cost for Ontario’s workers’ compensation system.
BetterUp Canada, the Toronto-based arm of US virtual coaching company BetterUp, announced the Ontario Frontline Study on October 9. Eligible first responders and healthcare workers in Ontario will receive six months of free coaching and may be paid for taking part.
The coaching method was developed with Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor widely regarded as the founder of positive psychology. He has sat on BetterUp’s science board since 2018.
“Can we build psychological resilience in people before they are in crisis, and does it protect them from the occupational toll of high-stress work?” Seligman said, describing the question the study aims to answer.
BetterUp has not published the study’s design, including participant numbers, whether there will be a control group, or which outcomes will be measured.
The study goes to the heart of a claims issue Ontario has grappled with for a decade. In 2016, the province passed legislation presuming that PTSD diagnosed in first responders is work-related unless shown otherwise. The law covered more than 73,000 workers, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics and some correctional staff.
Claims rose sharply after that. A study published in the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation last year analyzed 11,306 approved WSIB mental stress claims filed by Ontario public safety personnel between 2014 and 2023. Its authors linked the increase partly to the presumptive legislation. The WSIB’s current policy means a first responder’s PTSD claim can be rebutted only if the evidence shows the job was not a significant contributing factor.
That leaves employers and the compensation system paying for mental injuries after they happen. Prevention programs that worked would change the economics. Fewer injuries would mean fewer claims and shorter absences.
University of British Columbia Okanagan psychology professor Lesley Lutes, an adviser on the study, said most mental health resources in Canada sit in the private sector, and that research like this could build evidence for a scalable way to reach frontline workers.
BetterUp lists the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario among its Canadian clients, alongside EllisDon and Loblaw. The release does not say whether the WSIB has any role in the study.
For group benefits and disability insurers, the results could matter beyond workers’ compensation.
Healthcare workers outside the presumptive framework often turn to group disability and extended health plans for mental health claims, which have become a leading driver of disability costs. If coaching proves effective at preventing those injuries, insurers and plan sponsors would have a case for funding it upfront.
