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Mental health impacts all of us. In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness. By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have – or have had – a mental illness.
Mental health should not be talked about just on campaign awareness days. We need to continue the conversations, continue to challenge stigma, educate our members and support members that may be struggling.
The Ontario Regional Council (ORC) Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP) Standing Committee is working to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, both on the job and in our personal lives, and to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.
Show your support by purchasing and wearing an “End the Stigma, Mental Health Matters” t-shirt.
Hand-in-hand with awareness is access to information on prevention.
No workplace is immune from mental injury hazard. That is why our definition of occupational health and safety cannot be limited to the physical well-being only – it must include mental well-being as well.
With most adults spending more of their waking hours at workplace than anywhere else, addressing issues of mental health on the job is crucially important.
Together, we must keep this responsibility to ourselves and our co-workers in mind during any work activity.
Ensuring a psychologically healthy workplace (a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health) is a key function of Occupational Health and Safety Committees (OHSC).
Just like any other hazard at workplace, OHS Committees need to recognize, assess, control, evaluate, review, adjust, monitor and maintain the program.
OHSC’s need to use the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) which identifies psychosocial risk factors (workplace factors).
No Unifor member is alone. You can access information on mental health or addiction and substance abuse here.
Additional Resources:
Mental Health Commission of Canada
Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW)
- Mental Injury Prevention Tools – Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)
- StressAssess.ca – Workplace and Personal Editions (COPSOQ III, Canadian data)
In solidarity,
Samia Hashi
Ontario Regional Director