Mental health and work 1
Session details
Date:
Time:
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location:
Zoom videoconferencing
Didactic presentation by:
Drew Sousa
Session objectives
At the end of this session, participants should be able to:
- Explain how employers and healthcare practitioners can work collaboratively to support an individual, with a mental health condition, to facilitate an effective return to work.
- List the organizational factors required to provide a healthy work environment which supports an individual to obtain appropriate health care, facilitate a return to work and fully integrate into the workplace.
- Describe how stigma impacts an individual’s ability to obtain appropriate health care.
Session resources
Recovery and Return to Work is an important part of a holistic PTSD Plan. Return to Work for an worker who has suffered PTSD can involve careful balancing of the needs of the worker and the needs of the workplace/Employer. The Employer has a duty to accommodate, which means that you are required to “identify and change any rules, practices, expectations or procedures to meet the needs of employees so that they can perform to the best of their potential. This right to equality must be balanced with the employer’s right to run a productive workplace.” Source: First Responders First
About presenter
Drew Sousa has been an occupational health nurse for over 25 years and is currently the executive director for the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association (OOHNA). Before this, Sousa retired from being the manager of the Employee Health Unit at the City of Mississauga where, for 17 years, she led a multidisciplinary team of claims and health-care professionals in managing the disability and wellness programs for city staff.
Sousa has a special interest in disability management and mental health. She had the honour of representing OOHNA at the technical committees that created the CSA standards, Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace and Workplace Disability Management System.
Sousa has a certificate in Workplace Mental Heath from Queen’s University and is a master trainer for the Mental Health Commission of Canada. She has been a speaker for numerous conferences, including Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association, Osgoode Certificate in Workplace Mental Health Law and other industry specific conferences.
Case presentations
Most of the learning in ECHO happens through presenting and discussing case presentations. If you have a case you would like to present, please submit a completed case presentation form to the ECHO OEM project coordinator.
Physicians presenting a case may bill OHIP for case conferences (billing codes K707 or K701).