New Teachers and Mental Health March 2014 | Page 36

Results and Discussion

Teacher employment in Ontario has changed. According to the collective agreement an "Occasional Teacher who worked at least 90 full-time equivalent days as an Occasional Teacher for the Board in a school year shall, in the subsequent school year, be eligible to enroll and participate in each of the Insured Employee Benefit Plans [EBP] as set out under 15.2.0., 15.3.0. and 15.4.0." The new contract states that a new teacher must first work 90 days and will only acquire the EBP the following year. Throughout this magazine, I have exposed the impacts of this modification on the lives of potential teacher candidates (TC's), as they enter to become both Occasional Teacher's (OT's) and Long Term Occasional Teachers (LTO). Through speaking with soon-to-be graduates of the Ontario education program I have gained insights on the effects of this unionized collective agreement on their lives. After collecting the data, I believe that I have created a knowledgeable community of educators who can inspire the change we need for the future!

There were predominantly female's who participated in the survey "Your Health as an Occasional Teacher", perhaps this was because there are more females than males in the education program. The majority of these participants will be searching for employment (38.64% of the participants) in 2015, with others ranging between 2014-2019. The students who participated in the survey will be searching for jobs as occasional teachers, under the current contract, without the support of the Employment Benefits Program [EBP]. Nearly 40% of students actively require, or know students who require medical assistance. However, the majority at 60%, stated that they did not require, or know anyone who requires medical assistance. This could be from the lack of discussion around medical health issues and the stigma that comes with it. Also what qualifies as "medical assistance" is often misjudged (as a physical