Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace

A changing and ever demanding workplace environment can create challenges for the mental health and well-being of staff and management in any organization.   The rise in workplace mental health issues holds significant costs if not managed well.  By 2020, depression is expected to be the leading cause of disability.  

This 4-part webinar series offers participants an overview of the Psychological Health & Safety Standard and provides practical tools and strategies to implement and maintain the Standard in your work place. 

The Psychological Health & Safety Standard has been developed to prevent harm to worker psychological health and safety arising from the workplace environment. Through the four modules, we take participants through the process of implementing, maintaining and evaluating Psychological Health & Safety in your workplace.

“Very well organized and explained.”

Module 1 – Getting Started

1. Learn about the Psychological Health & Safety Standard and key criteria to creating a psychologically healthy & safe (PHS) work environment.
2. Get tips on using financial, legal and strategic challenges and opportunities to build a case for supporting PHS in your organization.
3. Create engagement opportunities by defining the roles of PHS champions.
4. Learn how to define your organization’s PHS considerations to build your case for support.

Module 2 – Assessing and Planning

1. Using your organization’s PHS considerations, learn about key metrics and strategies to be considered in assessing the PHS of your organization.
2. Get tips to create a plan to collect and assess current state of the PHS in your organization.
3. Learn about key considerations in building the roles and responsibilities of your PHS team.
4. Get ideas to help you develop your Psychological Health & Safety (PHS) Statement.

Module 3 – Implementation

1. Learn practical strategies to engage your workforce in the process.
2. Determine how various communication strategies can encourage workforce engagement and commitment.
3. Get templates to keep your plan on track and maintain momentum.

Module 4 – Evaluation

1. Learn about qualitative measures to evaluate your PHS plan.
2. Determine various reporting processes to use to engage staff engagement.

Target Audience: This 4-part program is designed for anyone who is involved in supporting employees and their work performance.  Team leaders, managers/supervisors, union representatives, human resource managers, educators, and consultants will all benefit from this workshop.

When: Every Tuesday, for 4 weeks, from 10:00 am-11:00 am  (May 7, 14, 21, 28)

Where: Online webinar via your computer. 

Webinar Recordings: Included in your registration is access to the webinar recordings for 7 days. A link will be sent to participants immediately after the live webinar. Now you don’t have to worry about missing a session!

Maximizing the Value of these Webinars

Registration entitles you to one Internet connection and an unlimited number of participants from your organization in one listening room.

Invite others to participate. Structure a group “lunch and learn” session and invite staff to attend.

Debrief the lessons learned. Set aside time at the end of the webinar to discuss takeaways, and how they apply to your group or organization.

Key benefits of a mentally healthy workplace:

Operational Success: Mentally healthy workplaces demonstrate higher levels of employee and volunteer motivation, commitment and creativity, as well as better decision making.

Productivity: Happy and psychologically healthy employees and volunteers work harder and more efficiently.

Cost Savings: There is a strong link between mental health, physical well-being and injury prevention, disability and absenteeism.

Improved Relations: Better mental health among employees and volunteers results in fewer conflicts and complaints.

 The Facts: 

• By age 40, about 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness
• In a recent major Canadian study, 82% of responding organizations ranked mental health conditions in their top three causes of short term disability (72% for long-term)
• 30% of all short and long term disability claims are due to mental health problems and illnesses
• The cost of a disability leave for a mental illness is about double the cost of a leave due to a physical illness.
• 64% of Ontario workers would be concerned about how work would be affected if a colleague had a mental illness
• 39% of Ontario workers indicate that they would not tell their managers if they were experiencing a mental health problem
• 40% of respondents to a 2016 survey agreed they have experienced feelings of anxiety or depression but never sought medical help for it
• Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in both men and women from adolescence to middle age
• 42% of Canadians were unsure whether they would socialize with a friend who has a mental illness
• Almost one half (49%) of those who feel they have suffered from depression or anxiety have never gone to see a doctor about this problem