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4 INSTITUTE FOR WORK & HEALTH About this guide Depression is a mental health condition. According to the Canadian Standard Association (CSA)'s Standard Z1003, Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. While depression in the workplace is an extensive burden for all involved, information gaps related to implementation may prevent employers from making investments to reduce its impact. To help address these gaps, we have drawn upon the best research evidence and integrated it with both practitioner expertise and stakeholder values and preferences. This helps bridge the research-to-practice and research-to- policy gaps that currently exist for depression-related disability management programs. Who should use this guide? The guide was designed to be used by anyone in the workplace who supports workers with depression to cope with their depression symptoms while working, or to return to work following an episode of depression. Users may include: individuals with depression, managers, co-workers, human resources (HR) staff, union representatives and worker representatives. The content of this guide is applicable to the entire workplace regardless of sector or role. What is the content in this guide based on? This guide is based on an evidence-based approach to informed decision-making. At the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), we consider three sources of evidence that contribute to informed decision-making: 1. the best available research evidence; 2. practitioner (e.g. clinician) expertise; and 3. stakeholder (e.g. worker) experiences, including their values, expectations and preferences. This guide is based on a synthesis of data collected from each of these three sources. More specifically, this guide is informed by the results of several IWH systematic literature reviews on effective workplace approaches to support return-to-work, stay-at-work and recovery for workers experiencing depression in the workplace. It also draws from the results of an online survey, participant interviews and focus groups that collected data on practitioner expertise and stakeholder experiences with managing depression in the workplace. These experiences were collected from Canadian workers, worker representatives, supervisors/managers, human resources staff and occupational health and safety (OHS) practitioners based primarily in British Columbia and Ontario.