Resources and Information
National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2013. This Standard specifies requirements for a documented and systematic approach to develop and sustain a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, and provides a framework to create and continually improve a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, including a) the identification and elimination of hazards in the workplace that pose a risk of psychological harm to a worker; b) the assessment and control of the risks in the workplace associated with hazards that cannot be eliminated; c) implementing structures and practices that support and promote psychological health and safety in the workplace; and d) fostering a culture that promotes psychological health and safety in the workplace. Newsrelease | Standard
Prevention and mental health programs in the workplace, and the tremendous return on saving just ONE LIFE.
Benefits Canada, ROI of One Life series, 2012. This report sets out practical, cost-effective measures to reduce the incidence and impact of physical and mental illnesses in the workplace, focusing on the use of existing tools and resources. Link to website | Link to Report
8 Signs You May Be Suffering From Depression.
Zoe Cormier. (Oct 2010). Best Health. Though we may shy away from the topic, depression is a real mental health issue that will affect many Canadians in their lifetime. Here are eight signs that you might be suffering from depression. Link to article.
Canadian survey on depression, July 2009
A new national survey on depression reveals that despite their impact on a person’s daily life, disabling functional symptoms – difficulty concentrating or making decisions, lack of motivation and loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities – are taking a backseat to discussion around emotional symptoms during patient-physician interactions. Read more.....(PDF English //French)
Mental health: Start talking to stop stigma.
Luke Hendry/The Intelligencer/QMI Agency. Larry Laws, executive director of the Mental Health Support Network of South Eastern Ontario, displays herd of foam-rubber Stigma elephants at the network's office to help start discussions about mental illness. [Link to Article // PDF for download]
The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and the Canadian Paediatric Society (Dec 2010). Workshop on Ending Stigma and Discrimination, and Achieving Parity in Mental Health: A Physician Perspective.
The report documents an invitational workshop to build shared understanding among physicians about the sources of stigma in the health care system, and recommend action to end stigma and discrimination and achieve parity in mental health. Read more...
Health Council of Canada (Dec 2010). Stepping It Up: Moving the Focus from Health Care in Canada to a Healthier Canada.
The report indicates that health disparities play a significant role in health system costs and that unless governments change their approach to addressing the needs of poorer and socially disadvantaged Canadians, we are destined to continue to spend large amount of dollars on our health care system. Link to website...
Source: http://www.mooddisorderscanada.ca/page/related-links-2
Living with a mental illness means not only taking efforts to manage it, but coping with the ways in which it can affect your life and those in it. Some individuals experience negative consequences at the workplace, or even worse, stop working because of stigma. This Workplace section aims to provide both employees and employers with information and guidance on how to promote and support positive Mental Health in the Workplace.
In addition to the information below, you are invited to join our facebook group "Mental Health in the Workplace" where we will post workplace topics for discussion.
- MDSC announces Mental Health in the Workplace Series(pdf)
- No 1: Health and Wellness in the Workplace (link)
- No 2: Developing a Workplace Policy (link)
- No 3: Roles and Responsibilities in Developing a Workplace Policy (link)
- No 4: Identifying Problem Areas (link)
- No 5: Workplace Stress (link)
- No 6: The Workplace Stress Audit (link)
- No. 7: Maintaining Work Life Balance (link)
- No. 8: Promoting Wellness in the Workplace (link)
Source: http://www.mooddisorderscanada.ca/page/workplace
Additional Resources:
To learn more about how to help people with depression and other mental disorders, take Mental Health First Aid, a course that was developed in Australia and now available in Canada*. For information on courses in your community, contact Mental Health First Aid Canada at www.mentalhealthfirstaid.ca
Learn more about anxiety, depression and stress by visiting online at:
www.albertahealthservices.ca
www.cmha.ca
www.healthlinkalberta.ca
www.informalberta.ca
www.anxietycanada.ca
www.crufad.com
www.suicideinfo.ca
www.beyondblue.org.au
www.moodgym.anu.edu.auda@albertahealthservices. ca.
- Canadian Health Network
www.canadian-health-network.ca
The Canadian Health Network is a network of expert organizations who provide information on health promotion and disease and inury prevention. - Canadian Mental Health Association
www.cmha.ca
The Canadian Mental Health Association is a nation-wide charitable mental health organization. Its website has a variety of information on mental health and mental illness. - Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation
http://healthymindscanada.ca - Centre for Suicide Prevention
www.suicideinfo.ca
The Centre for Suicide Prevention is a non-profit organization serving thousands of people in Alberta, across Canada and around the world. The Centre has a special library on suicide and suicidal behaviour, provides training workshops for Albertans including Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and other workshops across Canada, and supports research on suicide and suicidal behaviour. Contact the Centre for Suicide Prevention for a full description of workshops and other services offered. - Centre for Addictions and Mental Health
www.camh.net
The Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH) is a leading addiction and mental health teaching hospital in Toronto. Under "About Addiction and Mental Health" it has resources on mood disorders and on concurrent disorders of mental health and substance abuse.
Source: http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.ca/EN/resources/Pages/default.aspx
What Else Can Schools Do?
Schools can facilitate prevention, identification, and treatment for depression in children and adolescents. Students spend much of their time in schools where they are constantly observed and evaluated, and come into contact with many skilled and well-educated professionals. Effective interventions must involve collaboration between schools and communities to counter conditions that produce the frustration, apathy, alienation, and hopelessness experienced by many of our youth.
Involvement in research-based programs such as the Surgeon General’s 1999 Call to Action to Prevent Suicide or the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program and National Depression Screening Day (SOS High School Suicide Prevention Program) can greatly enhance schools’ efforts to organize prevention and intervention programs to combat depression. Some of the most important steps for schools to take include:
• Develop a caring, supportive school environment for children, parents, and faculty.
• Ensure that every child and parent feels welcome in the school.
• Prevent all forms of bullying as a vigorously enforced school policy.
• Establish clear rules and publicize and enforce them fairly and consistently.
• Have suicide and violence prevention plans in place and implement them.
• Have specific plans for dealing with the media, parents, faculty, and students in the aftermath of suicide, school violence, or natural disaster.
• Break the conspiracy of silence (making it clear that it is the duty of every student to report any threat of violence or suicide to a responsible adult).
• Ensure that at least one responsible adult in the school takes a special interest in each student.
• Emphasize and facilitate home–school collaboration. • Train faculty and parents to recognize the risk factors and warning signs of depression. • Train faculty and parents in appropriate interventions for students suspected of being depressed.
• Utilize the expertise of mental health professionals in the school (school psychologists, school social workers, and school counselors) in planning prevention and intervention, as well as in training others.
Reference: www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/.../depression.pdf