From the Public Health Agency of Canada: Exploring the Link Between Work-Life Conflict and Demands on Canada's Health Care System
Excerpt:
"Many of the health care challenges that face Canada have workplace connections (CCIH, 2002). Recent research indicates that unhealthy work environments and heavy workloads are associated with a myriad of health problems (Duxbury and Higgins, 2001, 2003; CCIH, 2002; Higgins and Duxbury, 2002). CCIH (2002, p. 22) notes that:
"'Paradoxically, the workplace has become an environment that both contributes to employee ill health while simultaneously offering the most potential for improving overall employee health and well-being.
"CCIH (2002), in its review of academic research on workplace health, found that in the 21st century definitions of health have broadened to include psychosocial well-being as well as physical health. As such, workplace health is critical to "good" health (CCIH, 2002). Research in this area indicates, however, that initiatives to improve workplace health which focus purely on health promotion are not sufficient to improve a multifaceted definition of health (CCIH, 2002). This contention has been supported by some recent ground-breaking studies which have focused on the link between work environment and employee well-being (Lowe, 2000; Shain, 2000; Duxbury and Higgins, 2001, 2003; Lowe and Schellenberg, 2001; Higgins and Duxbury, 2002)."
Duxbury and Higgins estimated that work/life conflict cost $14 billion in health care costs in 2000. Or about 14.5% of the total of $96.7 billion in health care spending in Canada. Assuming that BC costs are similar to those of Canada as a whole, work life conflict would cost the BC goverment $1.7 billion this year or about 5.6% of the entire BC budget. It should be noted that Duxbury and Higgins' estimate doesn't appear to include the health care costs associated with stress from unemployment, which undoubtedly would be proportionately higher.
Posted by sandwichman at February 27, 2005 03:04 PM