Canadian Occupational Safety

16 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com By Mari-Len De Guzman M andi Luis was at the height of her 27-year career in the banking industry when she was diagnosed with major epi- sodic depression more than 10 years ago. is sent her down a completely diff erent path than she may have envisioned for her life before the diagnosis. But it wasn't the mental illness that eventually forced her out of a job she's held most of her professional life. It was the corporate system that, frankly, did not know how to deal with the consequences of her condi- tion in a positive, supportive way. "It's not what (the employer) did to me; it's what they didn't do," says Luis. "All I wanted to do was heal and get back to work, but it didn't work out that way." A er being off work for six months to recover, Luis returned — but she was unable to get the support she needed, given her condition. Eventu- ally, she accepted a severance package from her employer. She may not have realized it at the time, but Luis says leaving her work- place then was perhaps the best thing she could have done for herself and her illness. She embarked on a jour- ney of healing that led her to a new passion: helping others get through the same situation she endured more than a decade ago. Today, Luis works as a return- to-work coach and employment specialist for immigrant professionals at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont. She also volunteers for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) as a peer support specialist, focusing on mental health recovery coach- ing. In her work with the CMHA, Luis talks about her experience with mental illness in the hopes of increas- ing awareness around mental health and how workplaces and workers can eff ectively cope. "I use my story whenever it's needed… to show people that, 'yes, it happened to me,'" Luis says. "To show them there's hope." Unfortunately, Luis's story is not uncommon in the workplace. Stress and mental health issues are becom- ing a major concern for Canadian workers and employers. A recent Ipsos Reid survey, commissioned by Great-West Life's Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace, shows more than one in fi ve Canadian employees report they are currently suff ering depression, while another 16 per cent say they have experienced depression in the past. Another Ipsos Reid survey reveals 71 per cent of Canadian employees have varying degrees of concern about the level of psychological health and safety in their workplaces. Fourteen per cent of them say their workplace is not psychologically healthy and safe. The issue of mental health in the workplace is nothing new, says Mike Schwartz, vice-president of group benefi ts at Winnipeg-based Great-West Life. It has, however, got signifi cant attention in the business community in recent years, partly due to the establishment of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable for Addiction and Mental Health led by Bill Wilkerson, an award-winning advocate for mental health. is ini- tiative brought mental health to the consciousness of business leaders. " ere is certainly fi nancial impact on employers," says Schwartz. "It comes in a number of ways. At the extreme issue, you have the disabil- ity cost… 30 per cent of long-term disability cases across the insurance industry are primarily related to mental health." Mental health issues are also attributed to increasing absenteeism and presenteeism among work- ers, Schwartz says. Presenteeism occurs when workers are at work but distracted by stress or other psy- chological or emotional factors. Like absenteeism, presenteeism can nega- tively aff ect a worker's productivity. e signifi cant costs to employers of the workplace consequences of mental illness are increasingly putting workers' psychological health on the radars of organizations, moving them to action. Employers are recognizing that psychological health and safety is as important to the bottom-line as the physical health and safety of the workers. "Some of the service businesses that we run into — where their busi- ness is people — they have tended to recognize this issue and recognize that you don't deliver a great service with unhealthy, stressed out, miser- able employees," says Schwartz. Mental health-related issues in the workplace have also given rise to human rights complaints against employers, says Donna Hardaker, workplace mental health special- ist at the York Region branch of the CMHA. MINDING MENTAL HEALTH Employers are starting to recognize psychological health as the new frontier for occupational health and safety management Mandi Luis, peer support specialist.

• COS_Feb2013CoverDIGITAL.indd