Mental health: how to reduce risks… and make a real difference

Mental health: how to reduce risks... and make a real difference

Mental health is now the leading cause of work stoppage in Quebec, ahead of physical health problems. Insurers report that by 2024 and 2025, up to 40% of disability claims will be related to psychological health issues, a proportion that has been rising steadily in recent years.

Behind these figures lie very concrete realities: work overload, anxiety, burnout, conflicts, lack of recognition. For employers, the challenge is twofold: to protect people’s health while limiting organizational, financial and legal risks.

Here are some concrete ideas for taking action upstream.

  1. Understanding that prevention is now an obligation

Since the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety system (Bill 27) came into force, Quebec employers have been obliged to identify, assess and prevent psychosocial risks, in the same way as physical risks.

Psychosocial risks include

  • work overload or unpredictability ;
  • lack of autonomy;
  • insufficient recognition;
  • conflict, incivility or harassment;
  • poor support from managers or the team.

  1. Focus on psychosocial risk assessment

Assessing psychosocial risks enables us to target the areas most at risk, understand the organizational causes and prioritize actions adapted to the company’s reality. It also helps to document prevention efforts.

For example, you know that every year in summer, there will be an overload of work, impossible to do otherwise… In this case, what do you put in place to limit the repercussions on your teams? Training on priority management, incompressible rest periods, obligation to take vacations and days off, increased availability of the manager, additional hiring of a student?

The aim is to identify the risk and implement specific actions upstream to reduce its direct effects on employees.

  1. Equipping managers: a determining factor

Training managers enables them to :

  • recognize distress signals
  • adopt empathetic communication
  • intervene early and adequately support absences and returns to work.

  1. Structuring absences and returns to work

Rigorous, humane absence management reduces the risk of relapse, promotes sustainable reintegration and protects the organization.

We tend to welcome a new employee, but we also need to take the time to welcome a returning one… We’re anxious to have them back, of course, but we need to give them time to re-acclimatize, just as we do for new employees. After a long absence or an absence due to burnout, a period of readjustment is necessary, sometimes even of relearning. This is one of the reasons why employees often return to work gradually, under the supervision of a health professional.

  1. Creating an environment open to discussion

A workplace where mental health can be discussed openly promotes prevention, reduces stigma and strengthens employee commitment.

Don’t be afraid to talk about your employee assistance plan or to communicate specialized resources in your Employee Handbook. The more the environment is conducive to discussion, the easier it will be to identify the situation, no doubt avoiding lengthy work stoppages and overload for those who remain on the job.

An article by our Human Capital team

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