This webinar will provide insights into these relationships, looking at how we define and view mental health at work, and providing practical discussion for organizations, leaders, human resources, and occupational health and safety professionals.
Take-home messages
- Psychological health is NOT an end state nor an absolute. Everybody is dealing with stuff in their lives
- In the past, organizations have tended to segregate safety issues/programs from other psychological health issues and programs. It is essential to integrate these perspectives to create healthier and safer workplaces.
- We don’t know a lot about the link between mental health and safety in the workplace, so we currently rely on related works or anecdotal evidence.
- We can address these issues in a variety of ways, using the EMPOWER model of (a) supporting individual workers (in terms of supports/accommodation and strengthening work groups (and their responses to mental health issues), and developing and supporting leaders to identify mental health issues, safety issues, etc.
- We need to think about shifting our focus to primary interventions focus instead of a tertiary ‘treating the wounded’ mentality.
- Workplace health and safety (including mental health) is a united responsibility of individual, coworkers, supervisors, unions, management, etc.
Learning Outcomes
About the link among mental health, physical health, and safety
About effective workplace practices to (a) support workers, (b) create inclusive and effective workgroups, and (c) develop leaders to support mental health in a safety conscious workplace
How to evaluate your own workplace in terms of these practices
Create basic guidelines for integrating mental health into your safety practices