In honour of World Mental Health Day on October 10th, 2022 we are featuring 5 resources that support the mental health of Healthcare workers.
- Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. Mental Health Toolkit.
“ARE YOU MENTALLY HEALTHY? By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have—or have had—a mental illness. CSMLS has compiled a Mental Health Toolkit that empowers employees, employers, and organizations to take charge and make positive change within the medical laboratory profession.”
- Canadian Mental Health Association. Workplace Mental Health.
CMHA facilitates four national programs: Not Myself Today, Workplace Training, Psychological Health and Safety Training, Takeaways Toolkit.
- Mental Health Commission of Canada. Exploring two psychosocial factors for Health-Care workers: Support for psychological self-care and protection from moral distress in the workplace: Facilitators and Barriers. 2022.
“Psychological health and safety in the workplace is directly tied to our well-being. It is integral to our capacity to be effective, to feel significant, and to find meaning in our work. Those in health care face many challenges to being well at work, challenges that have increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this light, Canada’s health-care leaders and policy makers have an ethical responsibility to support health-care workers in their psychological self-care and protect them from moral distress.”
- World Health Organization (WHO). WHO guidelines on mental health at work. 2022.
“The recommendations cover organizational interventions, manager training and worker training, individual interventions, return to work, and gaining employment. The guidelines on mental health at work aim to improve the implementation of evidence-based interventions for mental health at work.”
- Registered Nursing Association of Ontario. Nursing Through Crisis: A Comparative Perspective. 2022.
“The surveys reveal that in the face of inordinate stress, with high work demands and little support from employers or government, nurses have been tested like never before. And, yet, they have continued – nursing through this crisis to give safe and compassionate care to patients, residents and clients. The majority of nurses have now reached their limit. A significant percentage of Canadian nurses across all nursing sectors and domains have experienced severe or extremely severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, with higher percentages among hospital nurses and front-line workers. Over 75 per cent of Canadian nurse respondents were classified as burnt out, with higher percentages among hospital nurses and frontline workers compared to other sectors or domains. Some nurses have already left the profession. In the Canadian survey 69 per cent of respondents planned to leave their positions within five years; 42 per cent of those planned to leave the profession either by retiring or by seeking employment in another field. Our findings confirm that the nursing profession is in crisis.”
