Workplace Safety North facilitates a Mental Health First Aid training program for Canadian companies.
Mental health tools Training programs that equip workers with resources to recognize and navigate mental health issues By Mackenzie Patterson
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ach week, about 500,000 Canadians are unable to work northern Ontario through her company New Day Wellness because of mental health challenges, according to a 2019 Inc. Having grown up in Sudbury with her father and many of
report from Deloitte. The Toronto-based research institute Future Skills Centre surveyed more than 500 Canadians about this issue for a June 2023 report titled “Improving the Quality of Work in Canada: Prioritizing mental health with diverse and inclusive benefits” and found that 38 per cent of the respondents reported that their struggles with mental health had caused them to take time off work over the past five years. Of these, 80 per cent noted that the “demands of their job and work environment” were key factors in these struggles. While mental health concerns like stress, depression, anxiety and burnout are common across the workforce today, they are especially prominent in certain industries—including mining. In 2019, Laurentian University’s Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) released the results of a landmark study it had conducted in partnership with Vale and the United Steelworkers Union (USW) titled “Mining Mental Health.” The project looked at the mental health of 2,224 Vale mining workers across its Ontario operations over a three-year period and found that more than half (56 per cent) reported symptoms of mental health conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress. It also found that for more than 23 per cent of respondents, stress levels were “concerning,” and that symptoms of stress were exacerbated for workers who spent a significant amount of time underground. Lisa Lounsbury, an Ontario-based mental health trainer, has worked for several mining companies with a presence in 24 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 19, No. 1
her friends working in mining, she said she has long understood the impact working conditions in mining can have on mental health. “A lot of workers work in the dark, they work under dangerous conditions, there are near misses, there are fatalities. It’s a highstress environment,” Lounsbury said. “Often, it’s not a healthy working environment, especially if they’re working in remote communities. They’re not eating well, they’re not sleeping well, they’re lonely, they’re away from their families. The industry can be hard on employees.” The high rates of mental health conditions among Ontario mining workers highlighted by the Mining Mental Health study are concerning, not only because it could result in a lower quality of life for these individuals, but there is also a higher margin for serious accidents in the mining industry. With this in mind, the ripple effects of poor mental health in the industry have the potential to be truly tragic.
Mental health training programs could save lives Lindsay Digby is a health and safety specialist and Canadian Mental Health Association-certified psychological health and safety advisor at Workplace Safety North (WSN), a not-forprofit health and safety association that serves Ontario’s mining and forestry industries. WSN offers several workplace mental health training programs that can help organizations gain a better understanding of how mental health impacts
Courtesy of Workplace Safety North
mining and mental health