NQI honour will be rolled in 2011 as part of Canada Awards for Excellence program
Workplaces that successfully tackle mental health issues could be taking some hardware home, starting next year.
The National Quality Institute (NQI) and Great-West Life have announced a new award under their Canada Awards for Excellence Program that will honour organizations with outstanding workplace policies and programs for addressing mental health in the workplace.
The award is being unveiled at a time that mental health is getting a lot of attention, mainly due to some eye-popping statistics: One in five Canadians will personally experience a mental illness during their lifetime, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada. And, by 2020, depression will rank second only to heart disease as the leading cause of disability worldwide.
Put in dollar figures, mental health disorders in the workplace hit the Canadian economy to the tune of $50 billion when indirect costs are taken into account, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
How the award works
NQI, along with a team of experts across Canada, will be developing the criteria for employers to implement strategies for improving mental health at work. Organizations with outstanding performance in addressing mental health issues in the workplace will be recognized under the Canada Awards for Excellence (CAE) program beginning in 2011.
This new award criteria will be made public by April 2011 and the first presentation of the award will be made in October 2011.
Members of the steering committee for the award are:
•Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ), Daniel Langlais
•Canadian Mental Health Association, Kathy Jurgens
•Ceridian Canada, Naome Howe
•Government of Nova Scotia, Linda McMaster
•GP²S, Roger Bertrand
•Great West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace, Mary Ann Baynton
•Guarding Minds @ Work, and Simon Fraser University, Joti Samra
•Homewood, Edgardo Perez
•Mental Health Commission of Canada, Luciano Bernes
•Mental Health Commission of Canada, Chair Workforce Advisory Committee, Ian Arnold
•Mood Disorders Association, Karen Liberman
•National Quality Institute, Kathryn Cestnick
•National Quality Institute, Stan Murray
•Peel Children's Aid, Brenda Moody
•Public Health Agency of Canada, Mental Health promotion Unit, Centre for Health Promotion, Sahazia Ouedraogo
•THCU, Larry Hershfield
