Workplace Mental Health Law

Mental Illness: Recognizing the Signs at Work

Fulfilling the legal duties applicable to workplace mental health law first requires an appropriate awareness of mental illness and disability. This area is notoriously beset by fear and stigma, with the result that employers often assume that managing mental health issues will be more costly and difficult than it actually is. Mental health awareness dispels the stigma and provides a realistic basis for supporting and accommodating employees with mental health concerns.

• Recognizing signs and symptoms of common workplace mental health problems
• How to have the conversation with the employee
• What to do if you believe the employee is not aware that he or she has a mental mental health issue.

In this essential context-setting session, two distinguished psychiatrists will explore how mental health issues manifest themselves in the workplace from an early stage, with discussion of clinically appropriate responses on the part of HR professionals.

Addressing Substance Abuse Issues in the Workplace 

• Can you require an employee living with an addiction to undergo testing and/or counselling?
• Are last chance agreements discriminatory?
• Undue hardship and safety issues
• Practical case study (and possible solutions from both the employer and employee perspective)

Employers’ Legal Duty to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace 

• The interplay between various employment and labour laws and workplace mental health
• Is there an implied term in all employment agreements for psychological protection?
• Do employers have a duty to prevent harm under occupational health and safety laws?
• Does the existence of the voluntary National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace create a default standard by which the courts will measure employers?
• Steps employers are advised to take to prevent “reasonably foreseeable” mental injuries to their employees
• Understanding the indicia of the dividing line separating “reasonably foreseeable” harm from reckless or intentional harm

Dealing with Social Discord and the Link with Harassment

• The statistics
• The impact on victims
• The impact on the workplace – increased absenteeism; decreased productivity; poor morale; increasing tensions among staff
• Accommodations for investigations
• Trauma informed interviewing

Workplace Harassment and Mental Health 

Harassment negatively impacts the mental health not only of the harassed individuals, but of everyone around them. Moreover, those who live with mental illness and disability are often particular targets of workplace abuse. This session explores

• Employers’ legal duties relating to harassment allegations
• The interplay between harassment and mental health
• The impact of toxic workplaces on employee mental health
• How to prevent or repair a toxic workplace

The Impact of Oppression on Mental Health 

Day 2 of the program concludes with expert panel exploring the adverse effects of oppression on mental health.

• How oppression and bias fuels poor mental health outcomes
• Exploring systemic solutions 

Accommodating Mental Health Disabilities in the Workplace 

• The scope of the duty to accommodate and the process of accommodation: is it different in the mental health context?
• The role and impact of the Ontario Human Rights Code in this area
• The employee’s duty to disclose
• Do employers have a duty to inquire?
• Privacy rights and medical information: what can and should you ask for?
• How should the medical information be assessed and by whom?

Inclusive Job Design and Policies to Protect Psychological Safety and Prevent Legal Liability

• Managing the performance of employees with psychological disorders
• Helping employees with mental health conditions thrive in their jobs
• Inclusive policy language and appropriate functional abilities forms
• Inclusive attendance management policies that appropriately consider mental health
• Communicating appropriately during attendance management meetings

Early and Successful Return to Work After a Mental Health Related Absence 

• How to support an employee on a mental-health-related leave
• How to work with the employee’s physician
• How to reduce stigma and resentment from co-workers
• Impact of LTD on an employee’s ability to return to work
• Practical case study exercise

The National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace: Understanding and Implementing it in Your Workplace

Developed by the Canadian Standards Association and the Bureau de normalisation du Québec, the National Standard is a groundbreaking ‘voluntary set of guidelines, tools and resources focused on promoting employee’s psychological health and preventing psychological harm due to workplace factors’ (Mental Health Commission of Canada). This session – focusing on practical and legally sound approaches – will equip you to fully understand and utilize this powerful risk-reduction tool in your workplace.

Following a solution-oriented session on creating mindful leaders, the day will close with a ‘pulling the pieces together’ assessment of the legal and HR strategies that are likely to prove most effective and implementable in realizing the goal of a psychologically safe workplace.