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Psychological Health and Safety Toolkit for Primary Care Teams and Training Programs

This toolkit aims to empower comprehensive primary care teams and training programs to promote psychological health and safety through a set of curated, evidence-informed resources focused on team-based activities, policies, and practices.
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What is psychological health and safety?

Psychological health is a form of well-being that allows individuals to think, feel, and behave in a manner that enables them to perform effectively in their work environments, personal lives, and in society at large (Samra et al, 2022).

Psychological safety is a condition in which people are free from threats of harm to their psychological health (MHCC, 2019).

Psychological health and safety is a way people interact with one another as well as the way working conditions and management practices are structured within the workplace (CSA, 2013).

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Seven themes for workplace psychological health and safety

The resources in this toolkit are organized by seven themes, based on a clustering of the psychosocial factors identified in Canada’s National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.

Organizational and team culture

Organizational and team culture

1. Organizational and team culture

An organization’s culture is made up of the norms, values, beliefs, meanings, and expectations employees share and base their behaviour on (CSA, 2013). Positive traits of an organizational culture like trust, honesty, and fairness can promote psychological health and safety in the workplace.

What defines a psychologically healthy and safe organizational culture?

  • Civility and respect: Staff are respectful and considerate of each other, patients, caregivers, and other health-care disciplines.
  • Psychological and social supports: Co-workers and supervisors are supportive of employees’ psychological health and safety, and respond appropriately as needed. This support could include vacation time, health leave, and wellness time.
  • Engagement: Staff enjoy their work and are motivated to do their jobs well.
  • Involvement and influence: Workers are included in discussions about the way in which their work is done and have a role in relevant decisions related to their jobs.
  • Recognition and reward: Workers’ efforts are acknowledged and appreciated in a fair and timely manner. This could include events such as worker or team celebrations, recognition of good performance and years served, and milestones reached.

Sources: CSA, 2013; CCOHS, 2023

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Workload and work-life

Workload management and work-life balance

2. Workload management and work-life balance

Having too much work and not enough time to do it is one of the most significant stressors in workplaces across Canada. To effectively balance work demands with their personal and family lives, primary care staff must have enough time to complete the tasks and responsibilities they are assigned (CSA, 2013).

Supporting success, promoting well-being

  • Resource management and access: It is not just the amount of work that makes a difference, but also the resources an employee has access to in order to perform well. This can include physical space, equipment, funding, technology, and human resources support.
  • Growth and development: Workers are encouraged and supported in the development of their interpersonal, emotional, and job skills. Internal and external opportunities to develop or hone their competencies, which will help with both current and future job preparation.
  • Psychological demands: A work environment where there is a good fit between employees’ interpersonal and emotional competencies and the requirements of their role, such as working hours that support workers’ psychological health and safety.
  • Work-life balance: Employees must be able to effectively manage the demands of personal, family, and work life. Workers should be encouraged to take their entitled breaks, such as lunchtime, health time off, and parental leave.

Sources: CSA, 2013; CCOHS, 2023

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Successful attractive female doctor or surgeon in scrubs standing with folded arms in front of an African male doctor or consultant conceptual of an expert medical team, on white

Clear leadership and expectations

3. Clear leadership and expectations

Leaders provide clear, effective communication. They ensure that employees understand their roles and how they contribute to the organization (CSA, 2013). Leaders provide helpful feedback on their expected and actual performance. Also, they ensure that employees are informed about important changes at work in a timely manner.

Each leadership style impacts the psychological health and safety of team members. For example, instrumental leaders focus on outcomes and pay little attention to the organizational and team culture or team members as individuals. Transformational leaders, on the other hand, focus on long-term goals and care about team members’ growth and development. They are agents of change who transmit a sense of purpose and motivate others (CSA, 2013).

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Psychological protection

4. Psychological protection

A workplace is psychologically safe when staff feel comfortable enough to ask questions, seek feedback, report mistakes and problems, or propose a new idea. Leaders must also actively work to protect employees from stressors that could harm their mental health, including harassment, bullying, discrimination, violence, and stigma (CSA, 2013; CCOHS, 2023)

Stigma related to mental health and/or substance use

In the context of mental health (MH) and substance use (SU), stigma can be defined as “devaluing, stereotyping, labelling, and discriminating against people living with MH and/or SU problems or illnesses based on negative assumptions and beliefs” (Henderson & Gronholm, 2018; Knaak et al., 2017, as cited in MHCC, 2023). MHSU-related stigma can interfere with other factors important to workplace well-being, such as psychological and social supports, psychological protection, and psychological self-care.

The four types of MHSU-related stigma

  • Self-stigma: Occurs when an individual living with MH and/or SU problems or illnesses internalizes negative stereotypes about themselves (MHCC, 2023).
  • Interpersonal stigma: When a person holds prejudicial or discriminatory attitudes toward people living with MH and/or SU problems or illnesses, such as stereotyping, judging, labelling, and distancing behaviours (MHCC, 2023).
  • Intersectional stigma: Arises when MHSU-related stigma overlaps with other types of stigma and forms of inequity and discrimination, such as racism or homophobia (MHCC, 2020, as cited in MHCC, 2023).
  • Structural stigma: Occurs “when laws, policies, and practices of social institutions are inequitable, restricting the rights of and negatively impacting people living with MHSU” (Livingston, 2013, as cited in MHCC, 2023). “Structural stigma in health care happens when MHSU laws, policies, and systems of care reflect and perpetuate negative biases and beliefs about people with MHSU problems and/or illnesses” (MHCC, 2020, as cited in MHCC, 2023).

Source: Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2023.

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Protection of physical safety

Protection of physical safety

5. Protection of physical safety

A physically unsafe environment creates concerns and anxiety among team members. For on-the-job safety, staff must be protected from hazards and risks in the physical work environment. Risks could stem from policies, training, a lack of demonstrated concern for employees’ physical safety, and other factors (CSA, 2013). Leaders and organizations can protect staff members’ psychological and physical safety by ensuring that safety concerns are taken seriously, providing sufficient training for them to perform work safely, allowing staff to refuse work they believe is unsafe, and ensuring that work schedules allow for lunch time and rest periods.

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Portrait of doctor and surgeon in a hospital together

Protection from moral distress

6. Protection from moral distress

Staff should be able to perform their roles with a sense of integrity and the support of their profession, employer, and peers. Along with psychological self-care, this factor is especially critical in health-care settings. Organizations and teams can protect staff from moral distress by showing support during adverse situations, ensuring that staff has the human resources and equipment to provide quality care, providing access to bioethics consultations and training, and developing policies and guidelines to address morally distressing events (Grady et al., 2022).

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Support for self-care

Support for psychological self-care

7. Support for psychological self-care

Organizations and teams should encourage staff to care for their own psychological health and safety, including encouraging them to take breaks and vacations. Psychological self-care should be promoted and embedded into the organizational and team culture (Grady et al., 2022).

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Learn more about the seven themes

Resources

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Article, Article (peer reviewed), Document/Report, Policy/Framework, Program, and Other (Poster presentation)* Icon

Flattened Hierarchy Model 

This article describes the flattened hierarchy staffing model, which offers an alternative to traditional hierarchies in hospital settings. The model...
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Flattened Hierarchy Model 

  • July 2021

This article describes the flattened hierarchy staffing model, which offers an alternative to traditional hierarchies in hospital settings. The model encourages the delegation of tasks “down” to the most invested stakeholder rather than “up” to the most responsible one.

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This link opens an external web page. The Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada do not control the quality or omission of translations.

Author(s)/Organization(s)
Collins et al.
Tags
hospital hierarchy, task delegation
Audience
Health worker
Theme
Workload management and work-life balance
Cost
Free
Format
Article (Peer reviewed)
Sector
Specific to healthcare
Setting
Hospital
Identity
Not explicitly
Language
English
Blog Post, and Website Icon

Psychological Safety for Teams

An article providing practical steps and strategies to create a more psychologically safe environment for health-care teams.
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Psychological Safety for Teams

  • October 2021

An article providing practical steps and strategies to create a more psychologically safe environment for health-care teams.

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This link opens an external web page. The Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada do not control the quality or omission of translations.

Author(s)/Organization(s)
O’Donohoe & Kleinschmit
Tags
Psychological health and safety, safe environment
Audience
Manager/Supervisor/Director
Theme
Psychological protection
Cost
Free
Format
Blog Post
Sector
Specific to healthcare
Setting
Community care, Home care, Online setting, Hospital, Long-term care, Private clinic
Identity
Not explicitly
Language
English
Video, and Webinar Icon

Have THAT Talk (For Workplaces)  

A web page with a series of videos and worksheets on the 13 psychosocial factors defined in the National Standard...
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Have THAT Talk (For Workplaces)  

  • 2023

A web page with a series of videos and worksheets on the 13 psychosocial factors defined in the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.

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This link opens an external web page. The Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada do not control the quality or omission of translations.

Author(s)/Organization(s)
Ottawa Public Health and the Mental Health Commission of Canada
Tags
psychological health and safety; psychosocial factors
Audience
Other, Manager/Supervisor/Director
Theme
Organizational and team culture, Workload management and work-life balance, Clear leadership and expectations, Psychological protection, Protection of physical safety
Cost
Free
Format
Video, Guide/Tool/Toolkit
Sector
General
Setting
Hospital, Long-term care, Private clinic, Community care, Home care, Online setting
Identity
Not explicitly
Language
English
Article, Article (peer reviewed), Document/Report, Policy/Framework, Program, and Other (Poster presentation)* Icon

How to Learn from Failure

This article discusses different types of failures in the medical field and how clinicians can learn from and improve their...
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How to Learn from Failure

This article discusses different types of failures in the medical field and how clinicians can learn from and improve their practice by talking about their mistakes.

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This link opens an external web page. The Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada do not control the quality or omission of translations.

Author(s)/Organization(s)
Weir, P.
Tags
preventable failures, complex failures, intellectual failures
Audience
Health-care educator/Trainer, Health worker, Trainee
Theme
Psychological protection
Cost
Free
Format
Article
Sector
Specific to healthcare
Setting
Community care, Hospital, Long-term care, Private clinic
Identity
Not explicitly
Language
English
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Disclaimer: This inventory is by no means exhaustive. The Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada are unable to comment on the quality of individual programs or services. Consequently, their inclusion in this toolkit should not be considered an endorsement of particular programs or organizations.

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