Call for Abstracts

Sharing Impact: Advancing Workplace Wellness in Health Care

Your Health Space invites you to submit an abstract for presentation at our 2026 in-person conference, Sharing Impact: Advancing Workplace Wellness in Health Care, taking place October 27–28, 2026 in downtown Toronto.

Submit an Abstract

Building on the success of our sold-out inaugural symposium in April 2025, this year’s conference expands the focus beyond leaders alone. Workplace wellness is a shared responsibility. Your Health Space invites health care workers, leaders, researchers, system partners, policymakers, and innovators from across Ontario’s Health Care sector to share strategies, lessons learned, and tangible examples of how organizations are advancing psychologically healthy, high-performing workplace cultures.

Held during Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month, the conference will explore how sustained investments in workforce well-being and organizational practices can:

Address chronic workplace stress
Support recruitment and retention
Mitigate risk and system pressures
Strengthen organizational and system performance
Drive measurable, lasting change

Through presentations, panels, workshops, and interactive sessions, participants will exchange practical tools and insights that can be translated directly into action within their own organizations.

Theme Categories

Groups or individuals interested in presenting are invited to submit abstracts aligned with one or more of the following themes:

1. Cultures of Care

Psychosocial risk factors and occupational hazards affecting health care workers and leaders, including promising practices to mitigate risk and strengthen workforce sustainability
Healthy workplace practices and organizational interventions that drive meaningful culture change and support workforce well-being. Safe workplace practices, including fostering psychological safety and respectful team dynamics that support trust, inclusion, and safe reporting practices.
Physician wellness, including the unique clinical, cultural and leadership pressures experienced within medical roles and strategies to address them.
Evidence based strategies that support engagement and help foster positive workplace cultures.

2. Recruitment, Retention & Risk Management

Recruitment strategies that position workplace wellness as a competitive advantage for attracting health care workers and leaders.
Retention strategies that reduce turnover and support long-term career sustainability across roles, including clinical, administrative, and leadership positions.
Short-Term Disability (STD) trends, prevention strategies, and organizational responses to stress-related leave.
Long-Term Disability (LTD) implications of chronic workplace stress and approaches to mitigation and return to work success.
WSIB and other risk management considerations, including legal, financial and operational impacts of workplace stress.
The broader organizational implications of stress, burnout and moral distress on workforce stability and leadership continuity.

3. Change Management

Promising practices that leaders in navigating uncertainty, decision-making pressures and organizational accountability.
Supporting staff through restructuring, policy change, mergers or sector transformation.
Navigating system change, including reforms, funding shifts and evolving Health Human Resource realities.
Embedding wellness principles into change initiatives to reduce stress and resistance across teams.
Understanding and utilizing the neuroscience behind change management.

4. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility & Anti-Racism (EDIAA)

Embedding EDIAA principles into organizational culture, policies, and leadership decision-making.
Belonging in the workplace, including strategies that strengthen connection across disciplines and hierarchies.
Addressing systemic barriers impacting equity-deserving health care workers and emerging leaders.
Community-building approaches that foster inclusion for both frontline staff and leaders.

5. Psychological Health & Safety (PH&S) Implementation

Implementation of the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety, including practical tools, effective approaches, and lessons learned.
Successes and challenges in embedding PH&S into daily operations, policy and procedures across departments and leadership levels.
Accreditation-related stress management, including preparing for reviews while supporting workforce well-being.
Measuring outcomes, sustaining momentum, and demonstrating impact at both staff and organizational levels.

6. Other

Data-informed decision-making related to workforce mental health and retention.
Artificial intelligence applications that support health care staff and leadership capacity.
Innovative research advancing workplace wellness across the health system.

Presentation Formats

Please choose your preferred presentation format:

Concurrent Session (e.g., information sharing, case study presentation, workshop, panel discussion)
Poster Presentation (Display space for posters will be offered.)

Presentation time slots for concurrent sessions will be 60 minutes in length.

Submission Details

Abstract Submission Deadline: April 17, 2026. Submitters will be notified of their submission status in late April 2026.

All submissions will be evaluated using the following criteria:

Relevance to the conference theme
Clarity and coherence of submission
Relevance and value to participants
Evidence that the submission will encourage interaction among conference participants
Clear learning objectives and actionable insights

Acceptance as a Presenter

Key dates and details for presenters will be provided following notification of acceptance.
Presenters must be paid registrants of the conference.
Presenters will be asked to submit an electronic version of their presentation.
Presentation time slots will be 60 minutes in length.
Presenters will be assigned a presentation time by the conference committee.

For further information, please contact:

Sherry Sim
Event Manager
sherry@innovative4you.com
1-866-655-8548