Mental Health In Canada

Topics surrounding mental health in the workplace are still somewhat emerging and taboo for many employers and employees. However, currently in Canada, “one in five adults suffer from a mental health challenge” (Lecture, Sept 30/17.) Unfortunately, there are not many legal formalities surrounding mental health in the workplace that employers are held accountable too. Different workplaces foster different levels of tolerance and support for employee’s needs in terms of protecting their mental health, for example, the option to work from home or take a walk around the block every hour or so. The Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace National Standard of Canada is a large-scale attempt at providing employers with the necessary tools

If the standard became law, it could be crucial to the productivity and prospering of workplaces because it would protect the emerging number of adults coming forward with varying mental health issues. However, adding this standard and all its components to a legally enforceable legislation might be too broad for some workplaces to practically put it into place. Workplaces may then run the risk of nothing being done at all because the standard seems too big, overwhelming and unrelated to that workplace. For example, the different stressors associated with a position where you often to put your physical safety in harm's way. Compared to the stressors of a job where you sit in an office for the majority of your

Not Requiring the Standard by Law- Pros
-Gives employers an opportunity to create a standard that is tailored to the mental health concerns of their specific environment
-Ability to provide more flexibility with emerging issues
-CEOs of companies who have friends or family suffering from mental health may make some of the greatest efforts to promote mental though throughout their company as well as the community (eg bell,)- if the standard was a law they might not be able to achieve such a personal and large impact mental health in the workplace and community
-Without forcing the standard by law, it shows employers that the government understands that ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to mental health, shows people the government is willing to be less rigid on such a challenging topic such as mental health
-May be able to provide more progressive options for people dealing with mental health at the workplace then if the remedies were standard by law
-The more tailored to the specific work culture the approach for dealing with mental health, the more open and supportive co-workers and different levels of management might be with each other because it is viewed as a more ‘normal’