Priorities on Mental Health
Transcript
A conversation on Work-Life Balance with DM Sterling and ADM Wilson
Sterling: My sense is, in government, we have a fairly robust Employee Assistance Program, so that once someone feels like they want to phone the Employee Assistance Program there would be counselling available. The place that I think we still have a lot of work to do is before that.
Wilson: Hmm, yeah. Maybe I can tell you a little bit about my role as Champion of Mental Health.
Sterling: Sure!
Wilson: So when I was given the opportunity to take on the role of Mental Health Champion at ESDC, I have to say I was absolutely thrilled at the opportunity because I believe I knew how important this issue was in the workplace. And the response I received from employees and people across the organization was overwhelming. The organization was ready to talk about this issue and they've responded in a great way. So I've been working with other champions as well such as Jacques Paquette, who started the Mental Health Steering Committee in the department, and the torch was taken up by Sara Filbee, who is now leading that Steering Committee, and I'm looking forward to announcing the Mental Health Framework for the department that will soon be unveiled.
Sterling: And what's been your own personal experience with this issue?
Wilson: So in the aboriginal community we follow teachings around the medicine wheel. Essentially balance between the four directions: the physical health, mental health, emotional health and the spiritual health. And so when you have one element of that medicine wheel that's off balance, it affects everything else in a holistic manner. So those are my teachings and that's what I bring to this issue. Now for instance if you and I are out of sorts one day, something has happened at home, you know people in the workplace may feel that. And that might be a normal thing, an everyday occurrence in the workplace where you know small things happen and there's implications. But it could be as extreme in some cases for trauma to be experienced, and that will have a profound impact on the workplace. For instance, the majority of us have experienced some form of trauma, a divorce or a death of a loved one, so we need to recognize and acknowledge those experiences in life because we bring that into the workplace.
Sterling: And so that's why the work that we're doing in trying to make our colleagues feel more comfortable, approaching us, and asking us how are we doing, if there's anything they can do to help, I think does help to reduce the stigma about talking about it at work.
Wilson: That's right. We deal with physical ailments very easily, we know how to deal with that but in terms of mental ailments, we often have been feeling awkward about those situations. So now I think there's increased awareness and we can acknowledge and accept and recognize those instances and deal with them appropriately.
Sterling: One of the things we notice in the Labour Program is as our society moves from being more heavy labour-based kind of activity, into more what we sometimes call white collar or office-related, we generally end up more with occupational illnesses related to mental health, and less of the more traditional break a leg kind of and yet we don't seem to have the same degree of tools available for what is an increasing area of occupational health related problems.
Wilson: Yeah, and I'm not surprised you have that finding because increasingly I've been seeing that across this organization, and we've seen this throughout our careers I think. And so I think that is the objective of the work we're doing today, is to find those tools, tools that work for every particular workplace. For instance here at ESDC, the framework that we're developing is looking explicitly at tools that managers can have at their disposal. That employees can have available to them as well. Resources that will help all team members cope effectively and deal appropriately with those situations where they think there might be issues of mental health.
Sterling: In terms of recognizing the signs of stress, in terms of feeling comfortable making the phone call to the EAP, those strike me as areas where we really should be putting a little more emphasis.
Wilson: That's right. The EAP is one effective resource that has been there and will continue to be there but I think before we even get to EAP, there's mechanisms that we can deal with through our own coping strategies, our own support network, even our own colleagues who we support as we develop friendships in the workplace we can have supportive relationships with our supervisors and our managers. And so I think EAP and many of those services, outside external services that can provide support to mental health issues, are there along with the whole other support network.
Sterling: One of the programs I really like is by a company called NAV Canada, and they've been championing something called Peer Support. And basically people volunteer, many of them have had personal experience, and they're recognized, they're trained, recognized, as people you can go to in the workplace if you want to just chat, really at the front end.
Wilson: This is a best practice and something I would like to see at some point in ESDC.
Sterling: You and I sometimes have stressful jobs (laughs) what kinds of things do you do?
Wilson: Sometimes!
Sterling: Never! (laughs) What kind of techniques do you use?
Wilson: So I talked about the medicine wheel and I think that's a really important barometer for me to check in physically, to get a little bit of exercise when I can. To be spiritually focused as well. We don't talk about that a lot in the workplace but that's something that's really important to me to remain grounded in my own spirituality but also in my mental and emotional health. So I've experienced trauma in my life, and I've had to acknowledge and recognize and accept that and make adjustments in my work life to accommodate that. So I think those are the kinds of things that I do every day, is that I get a sense of how I'm feeling on a certain day, for instance, and I can adjust my day a little bit to accommodate that. And so, I may not always be able to, but I try to get as much as rest as I can, I try to leave the office by 5:30 at least every day and really try to not bring my work home if I can. So I make efforts to maintain some balance.
Sterling: One of the things that I think has helped me is actually to be humble about my own role in the ultimate outcome of things. So even though I am a Deputy Minister, I'm always part of a team of people that are in fact as capable if not more capable than me.
Wilson: Your support network…
Sterling: Yeah! And so you know I feel that basically if I have to leave the office for something's come up with respect to my children or illness of a parent, I'm actually leaving behind people that can replace me pretty easily. (laughs)
Wilson: That's balance! (laughs)