WSIB: the Creation of a New Mental Health Policy

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WSIB the Creation of a New Mental Health Policy

• Elisa Agnoletto
• Christine Charlebois
• Amanda Garnett
• Iris Lazaro
• Behdin Nowrouzi
• Colleen Ross
• Eugenia Wong

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Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

• What can Occupational Therapists do for you?

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Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

• Problem
• Workers with mental health issues are not
  returning to the workplace in a timely manner.

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Services OTs Provide for the WSIB

• Return to work
• Positive workplace environment
• Education
• Ongoing support

• Labour market re-entry
• Job matching

(Adapted from OT Now, 6(5), 2004)
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Why pay special attention to mental health in the
workplace?

• A staggering 35 MILLION DAYS of work are lost
  each year due to mental disorders, at a cost of
  30 BILLION in lost productivity, and costs to
  companies for disability payments and staff
  replacement (Immen, 2004)
• These estimates are on the rise Depression
  specifically will rank second only to heart
  disease as the leading cause of disability
  worldwide by the year 2020 (Cambridge et
  al.,1996) and is the fastest growing category of
  disability costs in Canada (Wilson et al., 2002)

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Why pay special attention to mental health in the
workplace?

• Being PROACTIVE is key!
• Makes perfect business sense..
• Smaller insurance claims
• Reduced employer premiums
• For those that get access to treatment, the
  employer will save between 5000 to 10, 000 per
  employee per year in the cost of prescription
  drugs, sick leave, and average wage replacement
  (Wilson et al., 2002)

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Positive Work Environment

• Purpose
• Minimize workplace stress
• Prevent aggravating mental health issues
• Create workplaces that value diversity, are
  friendly, respectful, communicative, flexible
• Allow employees to feel a sense of belonging and
  support
• (Cockburn et al., 2004)

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Positive Work Environment

• Workers with mental health issues
• Enjoyed a relaxed, easy going environment
• Valued an atmosphere of respect and caring
• Valued supervisors willingness to provide
  feedback and communicate openly
• Need to deal with side-effects of medication
• Need adjustments to working hours and tasks
• Are not able to maintain jobs without adjustments
• (Kirsh, 2000 Secker et al., 2003)

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Education

• An Occupational Therapist can
• increase awareness of mental illness
• inform employees on how to recognize the signs of
  depression and other mental illnesses
• dispel myths and alleviate stereotype use
• promote a culture where employees are open to
  discussing mental health issues
• (OT Now, 6(5), 2004)

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Education

• helps employees recognize the symptoms and seek
  help sooner, ultimately saving costs to the
  employer
• facilitates a supportive work environment by
  having a major impact on the outcome of employees
  with a mental health issue
• (Labour Notes, 1079, 1996)

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Ongoing Support

• What can OTs do?
• Suggest modifications/accommodations
• Enable clients to maintain occupational balance
• Provide opportunity for counseling
• Significantly greater outcomes for employees who
  participated in program with ongoing support
  compared to those who did not (Mueser et al.,
  2004)
• (OT Now 6(5), 2004)

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Ongoing Support

• Work with employer and employee to ADAPT to
  issues on individual and environmental level ?
  ENABLE employee to maintain work
• Create a more supportive environment for
  employees when returning to work

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Job Matching
Entails assistance in seeking and obtaining
employment opportunities that are
consistent/congruent with clients preference,
skills, abilities and interest
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Job Matching

• Results in
• (1) The client will remain interested in the
  work and this reduces frustration and
  boredom
• (2) An increase and improvement in work
  performance
• (3) Enjoyment of work that would result in job
  retention
• (4) Decrease absenteeism, presenteeism (
  present at work but not a productive
  worker), turnover.
• (5) Decrease in relapse or aggravation of the
  mental illness (due to stress)
• (Bennett Macdonald, 2003, OT Now, 6(5), 2004)

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Take Home Points

• OTs can
• Create a work environment that values diversity
• Provide education to increase awareness of mental
  health issues
• Provide ongoing support to enable the employee to
  continue working
• Assist in job matching to enable productivity

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Case Study

• Ms. X is a 28 year active, out-going individual.
  She has been working as an accountant for the
  past four years putting in between 35-40 hours a
  week. During tax season, she normally works
  longer hours, sometimes up to 60 hours per week.
  Recently, she has become withdrawn at staff
  meetings, unable to focus on her work and gets
  easily frustrated. Her co-workers have expressed
  their dissatisfaction with her lack of completing
  her work on time. Ms. X feels overworked and
  stressed. She discussed the matter with her
  employer and requested for a short-term leave of
  absence to allow her to deal with her problems
• What would be your recommendations for Ms. X and
  her employer in aiding her return to work ?