Announcing: Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace

Psy?cho?log?i?cal Health and Safety in the Work?place Stan?dard released!

Back?ground

In?recent?years,?a?grow?ing?base?of?evi?dence?has?illu?mi?nated?the?impor?tance?of?address?ing the psy?cho?log?i?cal require?ments of employ?ees in the work?place. Con?se?quently, the?Men?tal?Health?Com?mis?sion?of?Canada?(MHCC)?cham?pi?oned?the?devel?op?ment?of?a?National?Stan?dard?of?Canada?for?Psy?cho?log?i?cal?Health?and?Safety?in?the?Work?place work?ing?col?lab?o?ra?tively?with?the?Bureau?de?nor?mal?i?sa?tion?du?Qu?bec?(BNQ)?and?CSA?Standards.

The intent of devel?op?ing the Stan?dard is to pro?vide sys?tem?atic sup?ports that will enable Cana?dian employ?ers to develop and con?tin?u?ously improve psy?cho?log?i?cally safe and healthy work envi?ron?ments for their employees.

Key points about the Standard

• The Stan?dard is offi?cially titled Psy?cho?log?i?cal Health and Safety in the Work?place ? Pre?ven?tion, pro?mo?tion and guid?ance to staged implementation.
• The Stan?dard is vol?un?tary. It is not a legal frame?work or regulation.
• The Stan?dard was devel?oped for both employ?ees and employers.
• The Stan?dard is about men?tal ill?ness pre?ven?tion and men?tal health pro?mo?tion in the work?place. It is intended to help pre?vent harm to all peo?ple in the work?place, whether or not they have expe?ri?ence with men?tal illness.
• The Stan?dard offers any type of orga?ni?za?tion a struc?ture and process for chang?ing how men?tal health and men?tal ill?ness are approached in the workplace.
• The Stan?dard can be used dif?fer?ently by dif?fer?ent busi?nesses and orga?ni?za?tions depend?ing on their needs. Some busi?nesses may use the Stan?dard to cre?ate poli?cies and processes for pro?mot?ing good men?tal health while oth?ers may use it to inform train?ing programs.
• Strong orga?ni?za?tional lead?er?ship from all work?place stake?hold?ers and a com?pre?hen?sive approach to orga?ni?za?tional change will also be required.

It is impor?tant to note that the Stan?dard is a start?ing point for chang?ing how men?tal health and men?tal ill?ness are approached in the work?place. Not all issues related to employee men?tal health can be addressed by meet?ing the Stan?dard alone.

Why is a national Stan?dard needed?

1. Employee well-being/public health case for action

Employ?ees ben?e?fit from work?places that pro?mote and pro?tect their psy?cho?log?i?cal health and safety. ?To this point, the con?sen?sus of research in this area is that healthy work lives play an essen?tial part in main?tain?ing pos?i?tive men?tal health as evi?dence by the con?clu?sions of the MHCC 2012 report Chang?ing Direc?tions, Chang?ing Lives: The Men?tal Health Strat?egy for Canada:

• Adults spend more wak?ing hours in the work?place than any?where else. This includes peo?ple liv?ing wit men?tal health prob?lems and illnesses.
• Healthy work lives play an essen?tial part in main?tain?ing pos?i?tive men?tal health.
• The work?place plays a key role in pub?lic health ini?tia?tives aimed at pro?mot?ing men?tal health and pre?vent?ing men?tal illness.
• The health or harm cre?ated in work?places spills over into the well-being of fam?i?lies, com?mu?ni?ties and soci?ety at?large.

2. Eco?nomic case for action

For employ?ers, the busi?ness case in favour of the new stan?dard rests on four main para?me?ters ? (1) enhanced cost effec?tive?ness, (2) improved risk man?age?ment, (3) increased orga?ni?za?tional recruit?ment and reten?tion as well as cor?po?rate social respon?si?bil?ity. (4) It is also an impor?tant risk man?age?ment strat?egy as employ?ers are increas?ingly held legally respon?si?ble for main?tain?ing psy?cho?log?i?cal health and safety in the work?place and increas?ingly sub?ject to civil suits for employee harass?ment, bul?ly?ing and/or chronic overwork.

Wit?ness the following:

• One in five Cana?di?ans will expe?ri?ence a men?tal ill?ness in a given year. In 2011, 40% of Cana?di?ans expe?ri?enc?ing men?tal ill?ness were between the ages of 20?39 (Sem?tanin, P. et al. 2011, The list and eco?nomic impact of major men?tal ill?nesses in Canada: 2011 to?2041).
• Men?tal health prob?lems and ill?nesses are a lead?ing cause of dis?abil?ity in Canada, esti?mated to account for nearly 30% of dis?abil?ity claims and 70% of the total costs (Saira?nen, Matzanke, D., & Smeall, D. 2011. The Busi?ness Case: Col?lab?o?rat?ing to help employ?ees main?tain their men?tal well-being. Health?care Papers).s
• The longer some?one is away from work due to ill?ness, the less changce there is of a suc?cess?ful return to the work?place (6 months off ? 50%; 9 months ??10%)
• If unad?dressed, the impact of men?tal health prob?lems on lost pro?duc?tiv?ity due to absen?teeism, pre?sen?teeism and turnover will cost Cana?dian busi?ness $198B over the next 30 years (Smetanin et al,?2011)
• Between 10% and 25% of men?tal dis?abil?ity costs that are cur?rently directly borne by many employ?ers, could be avoided.

How can orga?ni?za?tions start using the Standard?

Down?load and become famil?iar with the con?tent of the Stan?dard and its annexes.

• Des?ig?nate a cham?pion in your organization?s lead?er?ship team who will take respon?si?bil?ity for mov?ing for?ward with activ?i?ties to imple?ment the Stan?dard.
• Get your organization?s senior lead?er?ship on board and develop a pol?icy state?ment around work?place psy?cho?log?i?cal health and safety.
• Under?take a plan?ning process to iden?tify your organization?s gaps. Involve employ?ees at every stage. Use avail?able tools (e.g. GM@W, the Standard?s audit tool, exist?ing work?place data) to assess what your orga?ni?za?tion is cur?rently doing to sup?port psy?cho?log?i?cal health and safety in the work?place and what you can do to improve on that effort.

Resources for more infor?ma?tion and assistance

The Stan?dard includes infor?ma?tive annexes to help users develop approach to imple?men?ta?tion and inte?gra?tion. Other tools that com?pli?ment the Stan?dard include:

• The Action Guide for Employ?ers (men?tioned in our past blog?posts)
• The web?site ?Men?tal Health First Aid? (http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.ca/EN/Pages/default.aspx)
• For Twit?ter users fol?low the launch of the Stan?dard using hash?tag #workplaceMH
• For Face?book users join the con?ver?sa?tion (https://www.facebook.com/theMHCC)
• For YouTube view?ers view the Men?tal Health Commission?s YouTube chan?nel here: http://www.youtube.com/1mhcc. Videos from the stan?dard launch will be pub?lished as they become available.

Down?load the announce?ment here: Psy?cho?log?i?cal Health and Safety Stan?dard
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Source: http://www.healthyworkplaces.info/announcing-psychological-health-standard/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=announcing-psychological-health-standard

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