Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast

This is a special two-part episode where we meet team members from YMCA Workwell, a social enterprise dedicated to creating better communities via better workplaces, and one of their clients, Rising Oaks Early Learning Ontario. In this we walk through senior leader buy in, gathering wellbeing data, teams meeting to analyze data and co-create solutions to reduce burnout, increase staff retention, a...

This is a special two-part episode where we meet team members from YMCA Workwell, a social enterprise dedicated to creating better communities via better workplaces, and one of their clients, Rising Oaks Early Learning Ontario. In this we walk through senior leader buy in, gathering wellbeing data, teams meeting to analyze data and co-create solutions to reduce burnout, increase staff retention, a...

Leadership is key to psychological health and safety experienced by workers. Leadership behaviours that are psychologically safe can be learned and in turn will spawn other healthy components of work and the workplace as leaders are inclusive, connect with employees, and create space for innovation. Jay Lamont walks us through leadership coaching in the field as a practitioner to help create psych...

In this conversation, guest host Erin O'Byrne and leading positive psychology expert, Andrew Soren discuss the importance of meaningful work and its impact on psychological well-being. They explore the concept of eudaimonia and delve into the challenges and hazards of meaningful work, as well as the role of leaders in creating psychologically healthy workplaces. They highlight the importance of an...

In this episode Ian speaks with Kevin Mooney, Vice President of Prevention and Employer Services with the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board. Kevin highlights different sources of motivation for companies to take serious action on safety. Serious incidents — fatalities, psychological injuries, and prolonged workplace absence — represent high costs for organizations and Kevin believes prevent...

In this episode Ian speaks with Dr. Sandra Moll and they discuss why and how the peer support apps PeerOnCall (https://www.oncallapp.ca/) and Beyond Silence (https://www.beyondsilence.ca/) can provide game-changing early intervention for public safety personnel and healthcare workers. Early intervention can prevent a significant degree of harm and suffering. Sandra describes the design, implementa...

In this episode guest host Ian Lewis speaks with Carlyn Neek in a "bottom up" perspective of workplace health by looking at what is happening at the individual level and how you can trace it back to problems in the person - environment - occupation fit. As an occupational therapist Carlyn has a front-row seat on workplace factors impacting individuals. However, when you look on a larger scale, wor...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #73 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with guest Charmaine Hammond about her work with companies and organizations following traumatic events that change a community in unimaginable ways. When a natural disaster or disaster of human making happens, company leaders, employees, fami...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #66 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! Did you know that chronic pain is increasing in working adults in Canada? Do you know if your employees or your peers experience chronic pain? Or how their condition impacts their lived experience at work? Although chronic pain is a commonly studied topic in many fields, very little i...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #63 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! This episode explores the need for leaders and managers to broaden their understanding of inclusion, equity and diversity and question assumptions and conclusions when it comes to employees at work. Diversity does not always have a recognizable visible indicator. Host Kim MacDonald sp...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #62 The Psych Health and Safety in Canada Podcast will be returning late January 2024! Dr. Manju Varma is a nationally recognized expert in anti-discrimination. Before her current position at the Nova Scotia Community College, Dr. Varma was the Anti-Racism Commissioner of New Brunswick. Dr. Varma also serves on the Board of the Canada Race Relations Foundation. Psych He...

Host Kim MacDonald's special guest in this episode is Mike Russo, a health and safety specialist, occupational hygienist and ISO health and safety auditor. Using a well known work health issue as the basis for the conversation, Kim and Mike demonstrate how you effectively apply the workplace Health & Safety RACE model, traditionally used in physical health and safety risk, impact and practice, to...

In this episode host Kim MacDonald speaks with special guest Dr. Stefanie Ruel a professor at Cape Breton University in human resources and organizational behaviour. Dr. Ruel is a former space life sciences Mission Manager who historical and contemporary justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigeneity (JEDII) challenges and opportunities in STEM and entrepreneurship. Dr. Ruel's latest resea...

Host Kim MacDonald's guest in this episode is Dr. Liane Davey, author of The Good Fight and specialist in workplace team leadership, behavioural dynamics, and team functioning. Liane works with global companies to not only change business success, but change mindsets, and build new skills that result in sustainable workplace change. They discuss the impacts of leader action and attention, communic...

Host Kim MacDonald speaks with workplace recognition and reward author and specialist Nelson Scott about his niche, one of the 13 psychosocial risk factors in the Canadian National Workplace Standard for Psychological Health & Safety. They talk about perceptions and interpretations of a work topic that can be understood as simple common courtesy, or can be deeply linked to our experiences and perc...

Substance abuse in Canada is not often talked about at work. But it is a major crisis in human suffering, harm and risk to safety, health and death by suicide. It touches virtually every workplace, every family and every friend group. And the cold, hard costs to the workplace of that suffering, harm and risk? A 2020 study by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) and the Univers...

Kim speaks with guest Lisa Lounsbury about her work with companies in the mining industry.

In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with guest Charmaine Hammond about her work with companies and organizations following traumatic events that change a community in unimaginable ways. When a natural disaster or disaster of human making happens, company leaders, employees, families, and friends find themselves under enormous emotional, psychological, physical, and financial stress. Finding...

In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with guest Linda Crockett about her work with organizations and employees navigating the negative impacts of workplace bullying, and harassment and how illness, and injury can be the result. Over the past 12 years, Linda has supported both employees and employers in navigating the impacts of complex and problematic workplace behaviour. Linda shares her tho...

Mindfulness practice and leader coaching have had a significant boost in popularity and use over the last few years. If you have been working in or studying workplace psychological health and safety you may have even experienced your own workplace adding initiatives that are focused on self-care and resilience. They are sometimes offered in efforts to improve work-related stress. These initiatives...

LISTEN TO PART ONE OVER AT THE PSYCH HEALTH AND SAFETY USA PODCAST! 😁 In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with special guest Dr. I. David Daniels, about his experience over the last year as the host of the Psych Health & Safety USA podcast. Dr. Daniels will share some of his pivotal moments as host. He shares the life and work experiences that shaped his interest in occupational health and...

Early adopters in any emerging frontier can offer great practical learning and help pave the way for those who come after. Although many leading academics and behavioural scientists have been studying the connections among psychosocial stress and stressors, work conditions, leader influence, and mental health and wellbeing, we are still very much in the early stages of applying psychological healt...

In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with Dr. Alycia Damp, a behavioural scientist applying science with technology to change the way we work. Dr. Damp is currently working in a Canadian company, applying selection science to the important process and practice of workplace hiring. The company, HireGuide, is developing evidence-based and behavioural science-backed systems that help organizatio...

Canada Crisis Line: If you or someone you know is in immediate crisis or has suicide-related concerns, please call 1-833-456-4566 toll free (In QC: 1-866-277-3553), 24/7 or visit talksuicide.ca. 1-833-456-4566 (24/7) 1-866-277-3553 in Quebec (24/7) In this episode, host Kim MacDonald talks with Seana Jewer, the Nova Scotia community engagement leader in the Mental Health Commission of Canada's nat...

Do you know if your employees or your peers experience chronic pain? If you did, would you know how to help? While chronic pain is increasingly common among employees in many industries, in this episode, podcast Host Kim MacDonald talks with Dr. Duygu Biricik Gulseren about this topic and explores what CEO's think about it, what it means to inclusion and mentally healthy workplaces. Dr. Gulseren's...