Protecting against exposure to trauma - With Mark Farrant

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.

In this episode guest host Ian Lewis speaks with Carlyn Neek in a "bottom up" perspective of workplace health by looking at what is happening at the individual level and how you can trace it back to problems in the person - environment - occupation fit. As an occupational therapist Carlyn has a front-row seat on workplace factors impacting individuals. However, when you look on a larger scale, workplaces have many levels that can be acted on. In this podcast they look at the various levels and their impact on the individual to help explain how macro level factors impact individuals at work.

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #73 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with guest Charmaine Hammond about her work with companies and organizations following traumatic events that change a community in unimaginable ways. When a natural disaster or disaster of human making happens, company leaders, employees, families, and friends find themselves under enormous emotional, psychological, physical, and financial stress. Finding a way back to normal and managing the impact of external factors on the workplace climate, working conditions, and mental health of employees, is a challenge many organizations are not ready to manage. Using the wildfires in Fort McMurray as a case study Charmaine will talk about the kinds of shifts that are needed in these circumstances, the psychological health and safety environment and risk factors that were impacted, and what organizations need to do to prepare when being trauma-informed becomes central to the daily operations. She will also share some of the best actions companies took and how they impacted mental health in the workplace and the company's role in managing during and in the years following the event. Here is a link to the incredible animated short that aims to raise awareness about mental health, through the eyes of woodland creatures coming back home after the Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo wildfires, released in July 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJD64fAEQnU

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #66 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! Did you know that chronic pain is increasing in working adults in Canada? Do you know if your employees or your peers experience chronic pain? Or how their condition impacts their lived experience at work? Although chronic pain is a commonly studied topic in many fields, very little is known about the work experiences of employees experiencing chronic pain beyond return-to-work studies. In this episode, Podcast Host Kim MacDonald talks with Dr. Duygu Biricik Gulseren, an organizational psychologist and assistant professor in the school of human resource management at York University, about the new understanding of chronic pain and her research focus on employees who live with chronic illness, chronic pain and pain disability. Dr. Gulseren shares some of the findings from her two most recent published two studies on working with pain and leadership behaviour that supports psychological safety and positive employee psychological experiences at work. Dr. Gulseren also shares her work with York students mentoring them to develop a special platform aimed at providing practical, evidence-based resources for those working or interested in occupational health and safety and psychological health and safety, its progress and change. The student-led project is called theohsproject.ca.

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #63 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! This episode explores the need for leaders and managers to broaden their understanding of inclusion, equity and diversity and question assumptions and conclusions when it comes to employees at work. Diversity does not always have a recognizable visible indicator. Host Kim MacDonald speaks to Wilma Li, founder of Business Knowledge Integration Inc. about her personal journey into EDI and her focus on advocating for interpersonal understanding and intercultural intelligence. EDI is evolving and better metrics of diversity and inclusion are required to reduce harms and business risks and create greater psychologically healthy and safe workplaces.

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #62 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! Dr. Manju Varma is a nationally recognized expert in anti-discrimination. Before her current position at the Nova Scotia Community College, Dr. Varma was the Anti-Racism Commissioner of New Brunswick. Dr. Varma also serves on the Board of the Canada Race Relations Foundation. Psych Health & Safety Podcast Canada host, Kim MacDonald and Dr. Varma talk about her path from school teacher to anti-racism, human rights work and equity, inclusion and diversity specialist. She shares the challenges and opportunities in the work and offers advice on how to create workplace and classroom psychological health and safety, protection from harms to mental health, and the important role education and communications play in managing issues of equity, inclusion, fairness and safety.

Host Kim MacDonald's special guest in this episode is Mike Russo, a health and safety specialist, occupational hygienist and ISO health and safety auditor. Using a well known work health issue as the basis for the conversation, Kim and Mike demonstrate how you effectively apply the workplace Health & Safety RACE model, traditionally used in physical health and safety risk, impact and practice, to risks, hazards and harms from the two perspectives of physical and psychological and physical health and safety lens. They demonstrate and share practical considerations and the questions to ask at each stage of the model (recognition, assessment, controls, evaluation). They discuss potential risk factors, indicators and influences, the crossover of physical and psychological impact, and discuss some of the obstacles that can get in the way of introducing change.

In this episode host Kim MacDonald speaks with special guest Dr. Stefanie Ruel a professor at Cape Breton University in human resources and organizational behaviour. Dr. Ruel is a former space life sciences Mission Manager who historical and contemporary justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigeneity (JEDII) challenges and opportunities in STEM and entrepreneurship. Dr. Ruel's latest research explores new understandings of grief, grieving, and work and their importance for health-oriented, workplace leaders, managers and supervisors who are interested in continuous improvement and applying newer research and understandings. Using the example of grief and grieving, Dr. Ruel also helps us understand how important it is to regularly review HR practices, policies, and benefits to ensure they are not creating invisible barriers to thriving and flourishing at work. Dr. Ruel shares how outdated, disproved research and models have and continue today to shape workplace beliefs and guide employee benefits and policies. The DSM-5 now recognizes complicated grieving as a mental illness. Dr. Ruel shares her thoughts on the role of workplace culture (one of the 13 psychological health and safety risk factors), the need for attention in supporting the area of grieving as a mental health concern and what all workplaces can learn from indigenous culture and practices.