Mental Health, Wellness, and Resilience for Transit System Workers
Transit system workers have traditionally been subject to chronic and acute stressors that can contribute to mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, burnout, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). In turn, these issues can lead to increased risk of injuries and chronic diseases, workplace dysfunction, safety issues, presenteeism, absenteeism, turnover, and cost impacts. The emergence of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the ongoing pandemic add another layer of stressors on essential workers including transit system workers. There have been media reports about transit workers exposed to the virus and falling ill, and several hundred have died. The mental health implications of the pandemic with its risk of exposure, illness, and potential death has not been widely examined, nor has the relationship between employee mental health and the effect of these issues on recruitment and retention. The pandemic compounds the chronic stressors with a unique set of acute stressors that are amplified by the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the pandemic. These include potential personal exposure to the virus, as well as the potential to expose family members; the shortage or delay of engineering controls; lack of personal protective equipment (PPE); and the problems associated with social distancing, job uncertainty, layoffs, physical and verbal assaults, extended or shortened hours, and disruption of work schedules and tasks. The most effective and efficient way to provide relevant and actionable information to transit systems on these topics would be to study the mental health, wellness, and resilience of transit workers, as well as programs, policies and practices of transit systems in addressing these issues. This will require examining the chronic stressors and outcomes in pre-pandemic times and then exploring the acute stressors of trying to survive in highly exposed occupations, amid a pandemic. It will also require exploring transit systems’ workplace culture, including labor-management relations and work organization, and assessing whether the culture contributes to the mental health of employees. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive guidebook and interactive products that would assist transit agencies and other stakeholders in exploring or implementing approaches to identify and mitigate the factors that cause negative impacts on mental health, wellness, and resilience for transit system workers. Some examples of products may include fact sheets, toolkits, checklists, a resource guide, training curricula, and/or interactive products or other methods for sharing and disseminating the information. A sustainability plan for the ongoing use of the products should be included.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $300000
-
Contract Numbers:
Project F-29
-
Sponsor Organizations:
Transit Cooperative Research Program
Transportation Research Board
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001Federal Transit Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Project Managers:
Garcia-Colberg, Mariela
-
Performing Organizations:
Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Center for Urban Policy Research
33 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ United States 08901-1982 -
Principal Investigators:
Brennan, Sandy
- Start Date: 20211118
- Expected Completion Date: 0
- Actual Completion Date: 20240528
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: COVID-19; Handbooks; Health; Mental condition; Occupational safety; Public transit; Safety; Stress (Psychology); Transit personnel
- Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01758788
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
- Contract Numbers: Project F-29
- Files: TRB, RIP
- Created Date: Nov 23 2020 4:26PM