“To give Front-line workers the power to act on their mental health,” Dr. Bergeron.

Montreal researchers are launching a smartphone App, as part of a research project, to assist healthcare personnel to self-monitor stress levels.

The objective is two-fold, allow workers too, “take a step back, stop for a moment to think about how they are feeling and, if necessary, to ask for help.”

And at the same time to, “to collect data to paint a picture of the mental health of caregivers during a pandemic to develop adequate help for the future.”

“To give them (Front-line workers) the power to act on their mental health,” Dr. Bergeron, psychiatrist, researcher, at Centre hospitalier de l’ Université de Montréal (CHUM)

For three months, 300 participants from the CHUM, the CIUSSS de l’Est-l’Île-de-Montréal and the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale will answer a series of questions each week on their psychological health, and work environment.

Based on the employees’ responses the App may encourage the worker to seek psychosocial help, or call a suicide prevention line.

Dr. Bergeron emphasizes the data collected is confidential and not shared.