Authors:
- Irma Molina, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto Branch
- Frank Sirotich, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto Branch Caley Cross, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants
- Overall, 42% of participants reported experiencing burnout. In this group, 73% reported poor mental health and 48% showed signs consistent with depression. In contrast, among participants who did not report burnout, only 15% reported poor mental health and 12% screened positive for depression.
- Workplace conditions are an important factor. Over half (51%) of burned-out employees reported unrealistic expectations given available time and resources. Common stressors include financial strain, heavy workloads, emotional demands from client care, and limited organizational support.
- Supportive colleagues, managers, and positive client feedback were identified as important contributors to mental health, though these supports were reported less frequently by employees reporting burnout.
- Among respondents reporting burnout, improved workplace supports, manageable workloads, and better compensation were identified as key priorities for strengthening employee well-being.
- Prevalence of Burnout in Frontline Roles: This research highlights that burnout and poor mental health are widespread across frontline service roles and are closely associated with everyday working conditions.
- Emotional and Workload Pressures on Frontline Providers: For frontline providers, it highlights the emotional demands of client-facing work, high workloads, and the strain of balancing limited resources with complex client needs.
- Organizational Factors Influencing Staff Well-Being: For organizational leaders, it underscores how workplace factors—such as workload expectations, compensation, supervisory support, and resource allocation—are associated with staff well-being.
- Systemic Responsibility for Mental Health and Service Outcomes: The findings highlight that employee mental health is not just an individual issue, but a systemic and organizational responsibility with important implications for service quality, staff retention, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Location
Ontario
Background
Burnout is a growing concern in service-oriented professions, with significant impacts on both workers and organizations. The World Health Organization defines burnout as emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy, emphasizing that it stems from workplace conditions rather than individual weakness.
The effects of burnout extend across physical health, mental well-being, and organizational performance. Common drivers include heavy workloads, limited resources, unsupportive management, emotional labour, and job insecurity.
In Ontario’s settlement sector, workers supporting immigrants and refugees face these challenges acutely, often within under-resourced community organizations. Burnout is increasingly understood as a structural issue shaped by systemic factors such as chronic underfunding and policy instability. However, limited empirical research has examined its prevalence and factors associated with burnout among settlement workers in Canada.
This study addresses that gap by exploring stress levels, contributing factors, protective supports, and employee recommendations to improve workplace mental health. The study draws on survey data from 417 settlement service staff across Ontario.
This study was conducted by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Toronto Branch in partnership with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI).
Findings:
How does this research apply to my work?
What should they take away from this research?
Improving employee well-being requires attention to structural and organizational conditions. Core priorities include managing workloads, ensuring fair compensation, strengthening supervisory and peer support, and investing in work-life balance and mental health resources. Leaders should recognize that burnout reflects organizational strain, not individual weakness. Creating supportive, well-resourced work environments is important for sustaining a healthy workforce and has broader implications for the quality of care and services.
The full report will be published in the fall of 2026. For further information regarding the study and its findings, contact Irma Molina at imolina@cmhato.org