The provincial government will soon announce significant funding to help address workplace mental health.
In a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) keynote address, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson said the province plans to launch an online education platform to support managers, and to help employees manage stress and build resilience.
By the end of May, Malcolmson promised a made-in-B.C. virtual training program to support sectors that have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Workplaces play a crucial role in promoting positive mental health,” Malcolmson said, noting that fewer than one in four workers felt comfortable discussing psychological challenges and issues in an employment context, pre-pandemic.
“That has to change, and we have an opportunity to change it now.”
Malcolmson said more information on what the province has planned will be available soon. Funding for those initiatives will be part of B.C.’s broader economic recovery plan.
“We’ve learned more than anything how much comfort people have by being at work. I’m encouraged that our provincial health officer didn’t shut businesses down, recognizing that this is a place of real stability for people.”
According to a new study from Pacific Blue Cross and Insights West, nearly half of British Columbians say their mental health has worsened as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Approximately 43% of individuals currently describe their mental health as poor, compared to 19% of individuals before the pandemic. The survey also captured the extent to which British Columbians are experiencing negative feelings. More people report feeling stressed (60%), anxious (59%), bored (59%), lonely (53%) and less hopeful (39%) as a result of the pandemic.
“It’s okay to say we’re not okay,” said Malcolmson, who added that employers can play an important role by helping employees navigate work-sponsored health benefits and other resources.
More empathetic, vulnerable leadership needed
“I believe we have a ‘twindemic’ here,” said Juggy Sihota, vice-president of consumer health at Telus.
“It is the COVID pandemic, but there is a mental health pandemic here,” she said during a GVBOT panel discussion on mental health. “The impacts of that are likely generational.”
Malcolmson, Sihota and others highlighted the need for compassionate and empathetic leadership. Sihota said Telus, for example, has responded to employee needs by increasing mental health benefits, which include a subscription to the sleep and meditation app Calm.
Gregg Taylor, president of the Family Services Employee Assistance Program, noted that many employees feel uncomfortable raising mental health issues at work, or feel that doing so may reflect poorly on them.
“People still feel the fear of, ‘What will people think of me?’” said Taylor, adding that greater vulnerability and openness from management can help encourage staff members to bring forward and discuss mental health concerns.
“The culture of change starts at the top,” added Sihota.
Taylor, also the director of clinical counselling programs with Family Services of Greater Vancouver, said that when a crisis persists over an extended period of time, people’s physical and mental ability to respond decreases.
“Surge capacity depletion,” attention disruption and ambiguous grief over losses or “micro-losses” – such as the loss of events, social gatherings, face-to-face interactions – are all contributing to increasing mental health issues.
Being mindful about not increasing the stress or pressure felt by an employee, lunch and learn sessions, and re-designing expectations and workloads were some suggestions put forward by the panel on how employers can help facilitate better employee performance and mental health.
