Mental health in the workplace
A psychologically healthy workplace is a respectful and productive environment that makes every reasonable effort to promote and protect the mental health of employees.
Employers are responsible for protecting the health and safety of employees
- 30% of disability claims are related to mental health problems and mental illnessFootnote 1
- 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental health problem or mental illness each yearFootnote 2
- $50 billion per year is the total cost of mental health problems and mental illnesses in CanadaFootnote 3
Top 8 practices—What can you do to help
- Support employee participation and decision-making
- Define employees' duties and responsibilities
- Promote work-life balance
- Encourage and model respectful behaviours
- Manage workloads
- Provide training and learning opportunities
- Have conflict resolution practices in place
- Recognize employees' contributions effectively
Benefits of a psychologically healthy workplace
As an employer, there are many ways in which you can help create a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. Building a supportive work environment that promotes mental well-being has benefits for everyone and keeps your workforce strong and competitive.
Better:
- engagement
- morale
- satisfaction
- retention and recruitment
- productivity
Reduces:
- absenteeism
- grievances
- health costs
- medical leave/disability
- workplace injuries
For more information: canada.ca/workplace-health-safety
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Preventing and addressing workplace mental health issues
Updating or creating a hazard prevention program
As an employer, you should assess your workplace for hazards, whether physical or psychological. Then, you should develop a plan to address and mitigate those hazards. Learn more about the hazard prevention program.
As with other health and safety issues, you must always work with one of the following when developing policies or programs that address mental health in the workplace:
- your policy health and safety committee
- your workplace health and safety committee, or
- your health and safety representative
Resources and tools to support mental health in the workplace
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has developed Healthy Minds@Work. This is a hub of tools and resources to support workplace parties in their efforts to address psychological health and safety in the workplace.
Other tools and resources are also available:
- The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard)
- Mental Health First Aid, developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, aims to improve mental health literacy and provide the skills and knowledge to help people better manage potential or developing mental health problems in themselves, a family member, a friend or a colleague