Program planning resources to support worker well-being and decrease the risk of work-related psychological injury or illness.
Now more than ever, workers in the broader Public Service in Ontario are at risk for work-related mental injuries due to the frequency and severity of direct and indirect exposure to psychological hazards and psychosocial factors in the workplace.
Psychologically healthy and safe workplaces contribute significantly to worker well-being, engagement and performance as well as lower rates of absenteeism, conflict and disability claims. These resources are intended to help workplaces navigate through the development and implementation of a psychological health and safety program regardless of size, complexity or need.
A guide to support worker well-being
A psychological health and safety program supports worker well-being and mitigates risk of work-related psychological injury and illness.
PSHSA’s psychological health and safety program guide is designed to provide information, tools and resources to workplaces to support the creation and maintenance of a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. The guide can be used to build a new psychological health and safety program or to identify program gaps in an existing one by offering innovative tools and solutions to enhance or augment your program development and implementation journey.
Use the program guide to:
- Learn about related provincial legislation and national/international standards.
- Familiarize yourself with workplace psychological health and safety and psychosocial factors (as well as additional factors for healthcare).
- Understand occupational health and safety hazard mitigation concepts at the organizational level and individual job levels.
- Get informed on psychological health and safety program development and implementation using systematic occupational health and safety and continuous improvement processes.
- Access resources, tools and checklists to support program development and successful implementation.
phs integrated approach
Psychological Health & Safety Program Components
An effective psychological health and safety program designed to mitigate risk of work-related psychological injury or illness requires a focused approach to Prevention, Intervention and Recovery. Each component is equally important and encompasses corresponding elements to support the development and implementation of a comprehensive program.
Our program summary provides an overview of the main components and their respective elements that may be included in your psychological health and safety program.
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Prevention
The basic elements, such as understanding legal responsibilities, recognizing, assessing and controlling the hazard, developing policies and procedures, outlining roles and responsibilities and incident reporting procedures.
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Intervention
Actions that can be taken to improve a situation, including ensuring workers know how to respond to and manage psychological events or report psychological injuries when they occur and are supported in doing so.
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Recovery/Return to Work
Recovery ensures that managers understand how to accommodate a worker who is suffering from a concern or issue, and that there are clearly established roles and responsibilities for supporting workers through this process.
Where Are You on Your PHS Journey?
Building a psychological health and safety program may seem like a momentous task. However, in most cases, workplaces already have many program elements in place, perhaps linked to existing programs such as workplace violence prevention.
Recognizing that it may not be feasible to develop and implement a full program all at once, PSHSA’s approach allows workplaces to evaluate readiness, assess current state and approach program development one piece at a time, based on current need. Each program component (Prevention, Intervention, Recovery/Return to Work) is broken down into supporting resources to support workplaces who are Getting Started, Moving Forward or implementing Promising Practices.