Workplace Mental Health
Increasingly Important
It’s been less than a year since CMHA – Calgary got
serious about relaunching a Workplace Mental Health
program, but it’s already proving its place in Calgary and
even across Alberta.
Last May, Morgan Craig-Broadwith
was brought on board from CMHA’s
Grand River Branch in June 2012 as
Workplace Mental Health Manager. The
goal was to re-develop and re-launch an
initial workplace mental health program
that had been rolled in the early 2000s,
but became less of a focus in 2009.
“We saw the opportunity and the
need in 2012, and realized it was time
to revitalize what had already been
developed a number of years ago,”
Morgan says. “We wanted to not only
resurrect it, but improve it. And that’s
exactly what we did.”
Under the business direction of
Matthew Hanrahan and support of the
senior leadership team, Morgan led the
official launch of the Workplace Mental
Health program with the first annual
Bottom Line Conference – Calgary Perspective in February 2012.
The sold-out conference saw 200
business professionals gather at the
Metropolitan Conference Centre in
Calgary to learn about the huge significance of workplace mental health and
the positive effects of a psychologically
safe and healthy environment on their
employees and bottom line. The inaugural event ran as a satellite conference
to the tenth annual national event held
in Vancouver.
“There is more than just a curiosity
now; there is an understanding that
employers and senior leaders need to
18 C a n a d i a n M e n t a l H e a l t h A s s o c i a t i o n – C a l g a r y R e g i o n
look at this as an important issue and
implement quality standards and procedure before the crisis point,” Morgan
says.
The
Workplace
Mental
Health
program includes workplace presentations for all levels of staff, quarterly
learning events, e-learning tools and
award-winning and internationally recognized Mental Health Works™ product
tools.
Morgan is the first CMHA – Calgary
employee to become an official Mental
Health Works™ trainer. She says
our program complements what is
already available for workplaces and is
strengthened through partnerships with
other organizations.