Province launches roundtable to promote healthier workplaces
Ontario is launching a roundtable to help workers who suffer from job-related post-traumatic mental stress, the provincial government announced.
This new roundtable will be led by a facilitator and will bring together representatives from high-risk sectors, such as police, emergency medical services and transit services, where workers may, as a result of their job, be at risk of developing a traumatic mental stress injury — such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
"This conversation will build greater awareness and understanding of current best practices in dealing with post-traumatic mental stress,” said Minister of Labour Linda Jeffrey. “It will support healthy workplaces as well as hard working Ontarians who are in occupations or workplaces more likely to expose them to traumatic events."
The roundtable will focus on the following:
- finding the best ways to promote awareness, education and training initiatives
- identifying and sharing approaches and best practices to deal with post-traumatic mental stress in the workplace through prevention, early diagnosis and intervention.
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) allowed 677 claims for traumatic mental stress in 2011 — an increase of 200 since 2007, the province said. Mental illness accounts for about 30 per cent of short-term and long-term disability claims.
