A veteran spoke about how the workplace can have a detrimental affect on employees’ mental health at Carleton Nov. 13.
Lt. Col. Stéphane Grenier said most companies do not know how to identify and help their employees suffering from mental health issues.
“What does a broken brain look like? Society hasn’t taught us that,” he said.
Grenier retired from the military two years ago and now runs a consulting firm that trains organizations on how to handle stress and anxiety.
He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from a tour of duty in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
He said he could not sleep and was constantly irritable at work, but none of his coworkers thought to ask him what was wrong.
Instead, his superiors sent him a notice: if he did not shape up in six months, he would be discharged.
“It’s like coming in to work with a cast on my leg, and someone kicks that cast,” he said.
If he had received more support from his coworkers, he said he might have been able to recover from his illness without clinical help.
The biggest risk factor for mental illness is a lack of social support, Grenier said, which is why his company, Mental Health Innovations Consulting, advises organizations to adopt peer support systems.
He trains employees who have struggled with mental illness and recovered. They become volunteer supporters, a kind of sponsor who helps co-workers when they feel overwhelmed or depressed.
“We consult the front-line workers to understand the culture of that organization: we use their knowledge to build a program. That doesn’t mean we make it up as we go, we have certain policies that must be in the program, like confidentiality. It’s a huge issue, but every organization handles it differently,” he said.
The event was a joint venture by Carleton’s Healthy Workplace Committee and CUPE Local 2424, the union which represents administrative, library, and technical staff at the university.
The mental health counselling services available to Carleton employees are “sufficient,” said CUPE 2424 health and safety chair Kim Heuff.
The university offers “a whole range of services and that’s really wonderful,” she said, but a peer-support program at the university would be beneficial.
“You don’t want people to feel as though they have to be isolated, and [with a peer support program] they can get a hold of the resources on their lunch hours, or during the day at their jobs,” she said.
Given the immense pressure on employees to be as productive as possible, a peer-program might be a good way to help workers deal with burnout, said Wiz Long, the union branch president.
“It’s now very common among employees to go on ‘stress-leave,’”she said. “That’s in recognition that our workplaces are stressful places to be.”
Long said the union is not planning to lobby for a peer-support program for Carleton staff.
“We’re just talking about it,” she said. Long said the purpose of the lecture was to educate staff and management about peer rehabilitation programs and the benefits they might bring.
