About

Introduction
The aging population in Canada has resulted in more than 5.6 million employees, or 35% of the workforce simultaneously managing adult/elder care responsibilities. Lack of workplace support can result in caregiver-employees leaving the workforce, taking early retirements, and/or missing work days – all of which reduce productivity and cause avoidable costs to employers. Recognizing that the aging demographic will affect all workplaces, it is incumbent upon workplaces to implement gender sensitive caregiver-friendly workplace practices, such as the implementation of the newly unveiled Canadian Standards Association Caregiver-Accommodating & Inclusive Workplace Standard. In doing so, workplaces have the potential to enhance work-life balance, retention, autonomy and reduce health insurance costs.

Goals
In partnership with 10 academic researchers, 12 diverse, committed partners – representing academia (5), government (2), non-government/non-profit (3), private business/service providers (1), and labour (1), the scaling up of the Canadian Caregiver Inclusive and Accommodating Workplace (CIAW) Standard, which is a gender-sensitive, accessible guide for employers, human resource professionals, and a wide variety of workplaces. While facilitating the realization of strong partnerships, based on respect, communication and a common interest, the proposed program of research will scale up the Standard to the international level, while conducting intervention testing and economic evaluation research in specific workplaces. Simultaneously we will disseminate knowledge specific to the culture change needed in the workplace, while creating and mobilizing implementation tools for the Standard. In so doing, we will not only best capture variation across workplace sectors, but also provide the evidence-based research for scale-up of the CFWP across the country and the globe via up-take by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Methods
Led by a CIHR Institute for Gender and Health Chair in Gender, Work and Health, who is a sex/gender specialist, the scaling up of the CFW Standard involves six projects. The first is the internationalization of the Standard, which aims to promote implementation of the CFW standard on a global platform. The second project will be the KM and KM evaluation of the Standard through universal access points, such as the CSA Communities webportal. The third project is an educational campaign that involves reducing barriers and strengthening drivers for culture change in the workplace, specific to carer-employee issues. This leads into the fourth project, which involves a feasibility study better to understand implementation of the standard. Afterwards, an intervention study will be conducted using the CFW Standard as an intervention in a pre-post research design, where quality of life, work satisfaction, health outcomes and economic evaluation of the Standard will be carried out in various workplaces. The fifth project uses an intersectionality approach to capture differences in Standard uptake, as defined by various sectors, characterized by sex, gender, ethnicity, pay, employment status, etc. The final project encompasses assessment of Standard uptake across indigenous populations.
Information Box Group
View the Carer Implementation Guides
Projects
Project 1: Internationalization of the Standard
Working with the International Standards Organization, create an International Carer Standard using the Canadian CSA Standard as a starting point.
Project 2: Knowledge Mobilization (KM) & Evaluation
Knowledge Mobilization and evaluation of such mobilization to support a healthy and productive workforce in Canada.
Project 3: Supporting Work & Caregiving: Diagnosing Readiness to Change
Collected qualitative data from Human Resources across Canada to inform our understanding of the barriers to progressive change in the workplace.
Project 4: Feasibility & Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Standard as an Intervention
A feasibility study to determine the feasibility, impacts, and cost benefit effectiveness of implementing the Standard in two different worksites.
Project 5: Informing the Standard's Cultural Competency: Caregiving Experiences of Immigrants & Indigenous Caregiving-Employees
Exploring the experiences of Indigenous peoples, visible minorities and European immigrants, this projects goal is to create a Standard as accommodating as possible.
Project 6: Indigenous Perspectives and Experiences with Caring
With its focus on the caregiving needs of indigenous residents in the Niagara region, this project considers, and provides input, on how to change or adapt the Standard so that it is culturally appropriate and useful to Indigenous community members and employees.
Project 7: Disseminating the Standard in French-Speaking Canada
Dr. Tremblay works to identify the dissemination targets/audiences specific to French-speaking Canada.
Project 8: Coming out to Care: An inclusivity study of the Standard for carer-employees
This project aims to understand the experiences of LGBTQI2S carer-employers (CE’s) and how their identity impacts their comfort in accessing workplace accommodations
Project 9: Aging Caregivers: An Analysis of Employment Health, Life Satisfaction and Financial Well-Being using the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) & Statistics Canada General Social Survey (GSS)- Caregiving and Care Receiving 2018 (Cycle 32)
This project aims to fill the data gap with respect to aging carers, and specifically carer-employees through the analysis of large quantitative data sets.
Project 10: Creating Essential Metrics for Assessing Sex and Gender Integration in Health Policy
This project works to create essential metrics to assess both sex and gender integration within health policy.
Project 11: The Impact of COVID-19 on Double-Duty Caregivers (DDCs)
This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on both DDCs’ unpaid caring responsibilities and paid healthcare work.
Carer-Employees
Carer-Employees, Healthy, Productive Work Partnership Grant
Dr. Bruce Newbold
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The research program will inform and be informed by a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) which will meet annually throughout the 5 year duration of the Chair.

Canadian Cancer Society

Bayshore Health Care

Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

Nova Scotia Centre on Aging

Vanier Institute of the Family

Saint Elizabeth

Université TÉLUQ

Canadian Human Rights Commission
Partners & Collaborators
Organization | Role | Partnership Grant – Mobilizing A Carer Friendly Standard |
---|---|---|
CSA Group | Partner | |
Sheffield University | ||
Conference Board of Canada | Partner | |
Carleton University | Partner | |
King’s College, Western University | Partner | |
Téluq-Université | Partner | |
Canadian Cancer Society | Partner | |
Bayshore Health Care | Partner | |
Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association | Partner | |
Nova Scotia Centre on Aging, Mount Saint Vincent | Partner | |
Nokee Kwe | Partner | |
Merrymount Family Support and Crisis Centre | Partner | |
Cross Cultural Learner Centre | Partner | |
WIL Employment Connections | Partner | |
London InterCommunity Health Centre | Partner | |
Habanero Consulting Group | Partner | |
Vanier Institute of the Family | Partner | |
UNIFOR the Union | Partner | |
Public Services Health & Safety Association | Partner | |
Canadian Human Rights Commission | Partner | |
Canadian Home Care Association / Carers Canada | Partner | |
Carers Australia | Partner |