MENTAL HEALTH
Fostering A Health, Happy Workforce
Mental Health
BY: JENNIFER BOUZANE FIT FOR WORK
The vast majority of employers would likely agree that they have many challenges nowadays, and retaining a psychologically healthy workforce and managing mental illness in the workplace is one of those challenges. One in five people in Canada are diagnosed with a mental illness and the obstacles that come with that can be present in the daily work lives of these people. Therein lies the challenge for employers: What are their responsibilities? And how best can they support the well-being, and facilitate the optimal job performance of their employees? Compassion and empathy are good places to start. But there’ s more to it.
Costs associated with the impact of mental illness in the Canadian workplace total $ 50 billion. These are the costs associated with healthcare, employee downtime and lost productivity. Mental illness has also been identified as one of the top three drivers of short and long-term disability claims for more than 80 % of employers.
These statistics speak volumes and further highlight the importance of employers being part of the response to this challenge. There are many tools to assist employers in establishing their practices and cultures of workplace mental health. And a good place to start is with the recently drafted National Standard of Canada on this issue that was commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada— Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace— Prevention, Promotion, and Guidance to Staged Implementation. The framework of the Standard has been designed to facilitate the following: identification and elimination of hazards that pose a risk of psychological harm to workers, assessment and control of the risks associated with hazards that cannot be
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