Poster Session
Impact of Mental Health Education and Supports in the Workplace
Poster Session Danielle De Graeve, Tania Williams
Mental health problems, appearing or manifesting in the workplace, are increasing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become apparent that workplaces need to improve their efforts to offer supports and resources to their staff. There has been a recent shift to recognize and prioritize mental health and mental health education. It is important for employers to adopt this principle and support their teams if they wish to enhance and retain their workforce. In 2023/2024, the University Health Network, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched wellness initiatives including workplace mental health courses, mental health first aid training, and a peer support program. Feedback gathered through surveys and usage metrics of workplace resources demonstrates the importance of having mental health resources available. It is equally important to education employees on how to utilize the resources to help themselves and their colleagues. Additionally, leaders within the organization have requested education on how to have a conversation about mental health and support their team members in crisis. Free educational offerings provided healthcare workers equal opportunities to attend and learn skills to cope with declining mental health or to recognize and offer support to those in need. Providing access to courses and resources in the workplace reduces barriers to obtaining mental health education, using available supports, and helps cultivate a psychologically healthy and safe work environment. Decreasing the negative impact associated with employee mental health issues can ultimately reduce economic costs to an organization with improved attendance, productivity, and retention.
Suicide Prevention through Literacy: Teens' Exposure to Suicide-Related Topics in Young Adult Literature
Poster Session Katherine Higgs Coulthard
According to the World Health Organization, globally the third leading cause of death for youth in 2021 was death by suicide (2024). In the United States of America, more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth have seriously considered suicide (The Trevor Project, 2020). The suicide rate among people aged 10–24 increased 62% from 2007 through 2021(Curtin & Garnett, 2023), with the number of youth deaths by suicide increasing significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic (Bridge, et al., 2023). Reducing suicidality among youth requires an immediate and comprehensive approach involving all sectors that serve the youth population. Schools and libraries are particularly positioned to lay the groundwork for this through the frequent and sustained contact they have with adolescents. Suicide clusters, defined as an increase in suicide or attempted suicide in a certain time period or location, have been associated with exposure to media depictions of suicide, as noted by an 29% increase in suicide rates following the release of the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” which depicts a teenager’s death by suicide (Hua, et al., 2024). It is possible that curating a collection of young adult books with suicide prevention as a major theme may help to reduce the prevalence of suicidality in youth. This poster session shares summaries of several young adult novels featuring suicide prevention and resources for using these books with adolescents.
Personal and Environmental Factors in the Workplace Associated with Self-reported Resilience among Social Workers View Digital Media
Poster Session Ester Zychlinski
Workplace characteristics of social workers may harm their self-resilience and lead to symptoms of poor mental and physical health. Therefore, this study investigates the contribution of several personal factors (gender and length of work experience) and environmental factors (subjection to client violence, social support, and social and economic exchange in the employee–organization relationship) to self-reported resilience among social workers in Israel. Structured questionnaires were administered to 346 social workers. The findings suggest that previous subjection to violence by clients was associated with lower levels of self-reported resilience. Perceived social support and social exchange were positively associated with self-reported resilience. However, gender, length of professional experience, and economic exchange were not significantly associated with self-reported resilience among social workers. The current research findings can be used by policymakers and managers of welfare organizations intending to strengthen the resilience of social workers. Promoting resilience should consist of both measures to protect the physical safety of social workers in the work environment, and mechanisms to strengthen their emotional coping and thereby enhance their mental health in the workplace.
Community-based Project to Improve Stroke Symptom and Coping Method Awareness: Disadvantaged Area Support Project of a Regional Cardiocerebrovascular Disease Center
Poster Session Heyjean Lee
Awareness of stroke symptoms and coping methods is important for symptom to treat time and prognosis. We have planned to make community based project to improve awareness and have got together with H county in G state. H county analyzes awareness level by distrcts of grassroot governance in rural area then selects one subregion. G regional cardiocerebrovascular disease center develop and train stroke symptom educators with 4.5 hour program including practices using role playing. Educators are selected in H public health center and registration and education center for hypertension and education in H county. Public health workers have educated stroke symptoms and coping methods for 237 residents in 12 senior citizens centers. 71 residents in 7 senior citizens centers are selected as control. Poster, leaflet, promotion board, and local newsletter are also installed for educated centers. H county investigate participants for before education, after 1 month, after 5 months, and after 10 months. Our results show educated participants's 5 symptom awareness are as follows; pre 10.9%, post 1 month 83.8%, post 5 month 63.8%, and post 10 month 65.2%. Unducated participants's 5 symptom awareness are as follows; pre 11.3%, post 1 month 20.5%, post 5 month 39.1%, and 10 month 34.4%. Mean number of symptoms awared among educated participants increase from 1.7 to 4.2 whereas that among uneducated participants increase from 1.8 to 3.6. Symptom awareness increases and maintains over 10 months. Community based education and promotion also seem to raise uneducated residents. It is helpful and effective.
Solution-Focused Wellness: A Brief, Preventative Intervention for First-Year College Students
Poster Session James Beauchemin
High rates of mental health challenges among college students are well-documented and have increased dramatically during the last ten years. Research has demonstrated a significant relationship between healthy lifestyle habits and mental health, with young adulthood being a critical developmental period for establishing lifestyle habits that are likely to continue throughout adulthood. Deploying prevention programs that help college students develop healthy lifestyle habits may mitigate mental health risk amongst this population and generate positive effects in later life. This study investigated the effects of a brief, six-week, solution-focused wellness promotion intervention among first year college students. Different weekly wellness domains (e.g. emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, physical) and Solution-Focused Coaching (SFC) techniques were integrated into sessions to aid participants in identifying meaningful healthy lifestyle habits for each wellness domain. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (RM-ANOVA) demonstrated significant between group differences over time for healthy lifestyle (HPLP-II), F(1,121) = 13.19, p<.01; anxiety (GAD-7), F(1, 121) = 98.13, p<.01; depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), F(1, 121) – 88.56, p<.01, and well-being (WHO-5), F(1, 121) = 65.04, p<.01. Results for stress (p = .15), and resilience (p = .17) were not significant. This intervention approach demonstrated a significant relationship between healthy lifestyle habits and mental health. Utilizing a holistic approach, individuals can enhance multi-dimensional wellness (e.g. social, physical, emotional) through minor, intentional lifestyle changes, thereby mitigating mental health challenges.
Promoting Exercise Habits and Smoking Cessation in Peripheral Artery Disease Patients: Challenges and Strategies
Poster Session Rieko Mashiyama
Conservative treatment, including exercise therapy, is considered the first choice of treatment for intermittent claudication in peripheral artery disease (PAD). Among exercise therapies, supervised exercise therapy is available in a limited number of facilities and many patients do not have the opportunity to receive it due to lack of time for hospital visits or hospitalisation. Therefore, we investigated the current status of unsupervised home exercise therapy and examined the usefulness of home exercise therapy. Forty-two patients attending the Department of Vascular Surgery, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine, with PAD, were assessed using the ‘Simple version of the facilitators and inhibitors of exercise habit scale’, the Stage Of Change for exercise behaviour (SOC), Vascu QOL-6 and WIQ questionnaires, and vascular function tests including ankle-brachial blood pressure ratio (ABI) and ABI recovery time after a one-minute treadmill walk. A calendar to record daily steps was then distributed as an aid to home exercise therapy, and the patients were re-evaluated after three months. The results show that the highest facilitating factor for PAD patients was ‘improving health and fitness’, while the inhibiting factor was ‘laziness’. It was also found that the inhibiting factor ‘laziness’ was lower for patients in the behaviour change stage maintenance phase of exercise habits than for those in the indifferent and interested phases. Furthermore, patients who used pedometers had higher VascuQOL-6 scores, more days of exercise per week and a higher proportion of those who made an effort to walk than those who did not use pedometers.
Development of Reference Values for 'Phase Angle' as an Index of Muscle Quality by Age Category in Japanese Population View Digital Media
Poster Session Kazushige Oshita
Phase angle (PhA), which is calculated from the resistance values obtained by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), has attracted attention as an indicator of 'muscle quality'. This study demonstrates the mean and percentile values of PhA, categorised by age according to Spirduso (1995), based on our previous study of PhA in the Japanese population (J Physiol Anthropol 44, 8, 2025). The body composition and PhA of 485 Japanese males and 812 females were measured using the multi-frequency BIA method. The 90th-50th-10th percentile values and the means ± standard deviations were provided for the following age groups: young adults (18–24 years), adults (25–44 years), middle-aged adults (45–64 years), young old (65–74 years), old (75–84 years) and old-old (85–95 years). The PhA (in degrees) of males were 7.2–6.5–5.6 and 6.4 ± 0.6 in young adults; 7.1–6.5–5.8 and 6.5 ± 0.6 in adults; 6.7–6.1–5.4 and 6.1 ± 0.6 in middle-aged adults; 6.3-5.7-5.4 and 5.7 ± 0.4 in young old; 5.6-5.1-5.4 and 5.1 ± 0.5 in old; and 5.5-4.8-4.3 and 4.8 ± 0.5 in old-old. For females, 5.8-5.1-4.5 and 5.1 ± 0.5 in young adults; 5.7-5.2-4.4 and 5.1 ± 0.6 in adults; 5.7-5.1-4.6 and 5.2 ± 0.5 in middle-aged adults; 5.6-5.0-4.7 and 5.0 ± 0.5 in young old, 5.3-4.7-4.5 and 4.8 ± 0.5 in old; and 5.3-4.4-4.2 and 4.4 ± 0.5 in old-old. Since PhA is known to vary by race, these data provide a foundation for establishing a Japanese PhA reference value.
Leveraging Community Members as Health Promoters for Stroke Symptom Awareness: Experiences and Implications
Poster Session Jiyoung Moon, Heyjean Lee
Due to limited workforce and budget at public health centers, implementing effective stroke awareness campaigns presents challenges. This study aimed to develop a community-participatory public health strategy utilizing local residents as stroke awareness promoters. In a district with 3,000 residents in T City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, a stroke awareness campaign was initiated. In June 2024, 23 local representatives were trained, followed by 49 home-visiting elderly care workers in August. A 6-hour expert-developed curriculum was adapted to a 3-hour version for general audiences and delivered by a preventive medicine specialist, and a public health professional. Promoters were provided with symptom leaflets, printed materials, and video instructions on conducting a QR-based stroke symptom survey. Their role included explaining stroke symptoms and actions using leaflets, distributing materials, and guiding residents to complete the survey via QR code. Activities were monitored through QR response data. Group meetings were held once per groups, and two interviews per group were conducted in November to gather feedback. Local representatives, mostly in their 70s or older, and home-visiting elderly care workers primarily reached adults aged 65 and above, limiting contact with younger and middle-aged populations. Their existing duties also constrained active participation. Older adults faced challenges completing the QR-based survey due to limited digital literacy and device access. These limitations suggest the need for tailored strategies for older populations and highlight the importance of assigning dedicated stroke awareness promoters, potentially linked to senior employment programs, to enhance outreach effectiveness and program sustainability.
Development of a Forest-Based Prenatal Registry Model Integrating Healthcare and Sup-Taegyo
Poster Session Jooho Hwang, Jeongho Choi
This study aimed to develop a standardized forest-based prenatal care model integrating forest therapy with public health services and to identify key registry variables for sustainable implementation. The model was applied to both socially and economically vulnerable high-risk pregnant women (intervention group) and stable pregnant women (control group), focusing on psychological and physiological indicators. After participation, both groups showed reduced stress and depressive symptoms, as well as improved quality of life. Inflammatory biomarkers, including IL-8 and NF-κB, showed a decreasing trend only in the intervention group. Additionally, sleep-related heart rate variability (RMSSD) remained stable in the control group but fluctuated in the intervention group, suggesting increased physiological and psychological responsiveness. Based on these results, stress, depression, and quality of life were identified as core registry variables, while inflammatory biomarkers and RMSSD were designated as general registry variables. These findings are expected to support future maternal health policies and long-term empirical studies based on forest therapy big data.This study was carried out with the support of the R&D Program for Forest Science Technology (Project No. RS-2024-004004406) provided by the Korea Forest Service (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute).
