Workplaces are central to our lives. For better or worse, many of us spend more time with our colleagues than with our families. Yet we know in any given week, at least 500,000 employed Canadians are unable to work due to mental health problems, and 30% of disability claims are related to mental illness. The pandemic has only made things more challenging, particularly among healthcare workers.
Ensuring good psychological health and safety in the workplace is vitally important to keeping employees energized, healthy, and at work, ready to deliver exceptional patient care to those who most need it.
Since 1904, Waypoint’s expert staff have been here day in and day out, supporting patients who need acute or longer-term psychiatric inpatient and outpatient care including forensic mental health services on their recovery journey. In an effort to support our staff, in 2015 the hospital embarked on a three-year initiative to implement the National Standard for Psychological Health & Safety.
“Healthcare has changed so much over the decades and we knew that we would need a comprehensive plan to support our staff through the many changes on the horizon,” said Nicole Mace, Interim Director, People Experience and Talent. “At the time the pandemic wasn’t even on our radar and I think having this standard embedded in our practice before it hit helped us weather some of the challenges.”
Developed under the leadership of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the National Standard outlines a systematic approach to develop and sustain a psychologically healthy and safe workplace and focuses on mental illness prevention and mental health promotion. Waypoint’s journey involved the creation of a specialized resource to develop an implementation plan focused on building a foundation while considering pre-existing structures, new programming, education and gradual systems refinement.
Adopting the standard was only the beginning for the hospital. Employee Wellness Coordinator Liz Everett shares “We have worked very hard over the years to embed the inter-connectedness of mental health and employee wellness.”
Since adopting the standard, the hospital has created a psychological health and safety committee, embedded mental health support skills in leadership development through initiatives like Psychological Health & Safety Conversation Kits and Leadership Rounding, worked with the Waypoint Research Institute to study trauma in the workplace, studied staff burnout in partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and collaboratively led Ontario Health Central region hospitals in collective well-being efforts.
All of this work led the hospital to be recognized as a 2022 Certificate of Merit Recipient for Mental Health at Work®. This nationally recognized award acknowledges the years of hard work that leaders and staff have put into the development and implementation of the extensive psychological health, safety and wellness program, and recognizes Waypoint as a national leader in psychological supports for staff.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with this recognition for our first year participating in the Excellence Canada awards and share my thanks with everyone involved in the work leading up to the award,” said Dr. Nadiya Sunderji, President and CEO.
As with most things in healthcare, the work never stops and plans for further enhancements are underway, particularly in these challenging times across the sector. Focus groups with staff and managers are inspiring growth opportunities and everyone’s participation is helping the hospital chart our path toward achieving outstanding results focused on mental health, safety and wellness for employees at all levels of the organization.
“With this recognition we know we are on the right track as we stay focused on this important employee support,” said Demetrios Kalantzis, Vice-President, People and Chief Human Resources Officer. “Special thanks to the team involved and everyone who dedicated time to reviewing our program and activities and filling out the substantial application. This is a great example of our commitment to quality improvement as we measure ourselves against industry standards and gain ideas for how we can continue to to enhance what we are doing to support efforts towards the next level of certification.”