Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast FlourishDx

This is a special two-part episode where we meet team members from YMCA Workwell, a social enterprise dedicated to creating better communities via better workplaces, and one of their clients, Rising Oaks Early Learning Ontario. In this we walk through senior leader buy in, gathering wellbeing data, teams meeting to analyze data and co-create solutions to reduce burnout, increase staff retention, and impact families with great childcare. We take this up a notch to apply to many organizations to show how shared accountability can impact employee wellbeing, workload, burnout, and staff retention.

This is a special two-part episode where we meet team members from YMCA Workwell, a social enterprise dedicated to creating better communities via better workplaces, and one of their clients, Rising Oaks Early Learning Ontario. In this we walk through senior leader buy in, gathering wellbeing data, teams meeting to analyze data and co-create solutions to reduce burnout, increase staff retention, and impact families with great childcare. We take this up a notch to apply to many organizations to show how shared accountability can impact employee wellbeing, workload, burnout, and staff retention.

Leadership is key to psychological health and safety experienced by workers. Leadership behaviours that are psychologically safe can be learned and in turn will spawn other healthy components of work and the workplace as leaders are inclusive, connect with employees, and create space for innovation. Jay Lamont walks us through leadership coaching in the field as a practitioner to help create psychologically safe workplaces.

In this conversation, guest host Erin O'Byrne and leading positive psychology expert, Andrew Soren discuss the importance of meaningful work and its impact on psychological well-being. They explore the concept of eudaimonia and delve into the challenges and hazards of meaningful work, as well as the role of leaders in creating psychologically healthy workplaces.

They highlight the importance of ancient wisdom and modern science in shaping workplace well-being. They stress the significance of starting conversations and embracing variability in work-life balance. Also included are recommended reading and further resources.

In this episode Ian speaks with Kevin Mooney, Vice President of Prevention and Employer Services with the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board. Kevin highlights different sources of motivation for companies to take serious action on safety. Serious incidents — fatalities, psychological injuries, and prolonged workplace absence — represent high costs for organizations and Kevin believes prevention efforts are on the right track with raising awareness and demonstrating low cost wins.

The WorkSafe Saskatchewan Psychological Health and Safety Resource Centre (https://www.worksafesask.ca/resources/psych-health-safety-resource-centre/workplace-psychological-health-and-safety/) and 7 Step Psychological Health and Safety Road map (https://www.worksafesask.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Psychological-Health-Safety-PHS-Roadmap.pdf) are accessible methods to increase awareness and soon they hope to share the results of pilot projects in local small businesses that demonstrate a simple no cost/low cost approach to identifying and taking action on workplace psychosocial hazards and regular worker feedback.

You can follow Kevin on LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/in/kevinmooney76).

In this episode Ian speaks with Dr. Sandra Moll and they discuss why and how the peer support apps PeerOnCall (https://www.oncallapp.ca/) and Beyond Silence (https://www.beyondsilence.ca/) can provide game-changing early intervention for public safety personnel and healthcare workers. Early intervention can prevent a significant degree of harm and suffering. Sandra describes the design, implementation, and function of the apps. Currently the apps are in a research phase where they are researching "what works for whom in what context" to optimize efforts.

In the podcast we review how peer support fits in the continuum of workplace mental health recommended by the WHO and why apps and the real people they connect can have a great impact. Peer support is one of many tools and having the right service at the right time can be critical to obtaining early support.

PeerOnCall evaluation research was funded by Movember, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Beyond Silence research was funded by CIHR and PHAC. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Government of Canada.