This article is written by Sapna Mahajan, Employer Co-Chair, and Denis St-Jean, Union Co-Chair, Government of Canada Centre of Expertise on Mental Health in the Workplace.

When the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, Canada quickly enacted public health measures to contain the spread of this novel coronavirus.

By mid-March, Business Continuity Plans for the Government of Canada had been implemented and directives issued to Canada’s 300,000 federal public servants of the Core Public Administration, encouraging working from home wherever and whenever possible. The federal public service’s Centre of Expertise on Mental Health in the Workplace was also pressed into action.

A joint Employer-Union collaboration, our Centre was launched in 2017 to provide advice, services and support to federal organizations in their efforts to align with the National Standard of Canada on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. A first of its kind in the world, The Standard is a set of voluntary guidelines, tools and resources intended to guide organizations in promoting mental health and preventing psychological harm at work.

Preserving and protecting mental health

We were quick to recognise that beyond the immediate physical health risks posed by this global pandemic, both short and long-term psychological impacts would come into play.

Covid-19 is creating stress for people and communities across Canada, including federal public servants and their families. Under these challenging circumstances, it is perfectly normal for our employees to be feeling angry, anxious, lonely, sad or worried. Acknowledging these feelings and the disruptions to their personal and working lives was the first step towards engaging employees in an open dialogue about their emotional wellbeing, and encouraging help-seeking behaviours to improve and maintain their mental health in the weeks and months ahead.

At the heart of our strategy to address the mental health impacts were open, transparent, clear, consistent and continual communications to employees and stakeholders at all levels. This led us to rapidly develop and launch Mental health and Covid-19 for public servants, an online resource hub available to everyone, everywhere, at any time, on any device.

In a prolonged crisis situation, employees benefit from clear, consistent and constant communications from their leaders

We developed a three-pronged approach to help protect employee mental health and wellbeing (for both those newly working from home and those remaining on the frontlines) and to prevent psychological harm when public servants working remotely begin reintegrating government worksites.

1. Empowering and supporting employees

Early mental health messaging to employees centred on normalizing the range of reactions to abnormal circumstances in the face of abrupt disruption to routine. In other words, their emotional reactions were, in fact, a healthy and adaptive response to this exceptional situation that would serve them well in overcoming the challenges ahead.

We curated free and accessible resources to post on our portal and empower employees to protect their mental health and self-manage their emotional wellbeing. Tips and tools ranging from self-care strategies while working remotely to coping with stress and building resilience were early features of this resource hub. For example, employees were encouraged to establish a routine for working from home, having a dedicated workspace where possible, and ensuring to build-in wellness breaks.

Employees were also directly engaged on the mental health impacts of Covid-19 through two webinars held during Canada’s Mental Health Week (May 4-10, 2020), attracting over 6,300 online participants and generating more than 380 questions from audience members.

To enhance access to mental health services and better support federal public servants and their eligible dependents, temporary measures were introduced to the Public Service Health Care Plan. Prescription requirements for psychological services were removed to minimize in-person interactions with healthcare professionals in respect of physical distancing measures. The scope of qualifying professionals covered under the Plan was also broadened to increase access to mental health services.

The Employee Assistance Program continues to be heavily promoted, as are broader national and local mental health services. Regrouping virtually under the resource hub the range of mental health supports available, both within and external to the federal public service, offers public servants relevant, credible and comprehensive information about mental health supports and how to access service providers.

Our expertise was also tapped by Health Canada to help launch Wellness Together Canada, a new mental health and substance use support portal providing Canadians, including public servants, with free online resources, tools and apps to help them address mental health and substance use issues arising out of Covid-19. Through the portal, Canadians can connect to peer support workers, social workers, psychologists and other mental health professionals for confidential chat sessions or phone calls, at no cost.

Main takeaway: In a prolonged crisis situation, employees benefit from clear, consistent and constant communications from their leaders. Giving employees the tools and supports they need in an accessible manner empowers them to better manage stressors and maintain their mental health.

2. Equipping leaders

In collaboration with the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada and the National Managers Community, we worked to better equip leaders with tips, tools and resources on how to best support employees and teams during Covid-19. Emphasis was placed on the importance of self-care for leaders, leading with empathy when it’s not “business as usual”, and fostering psychologically safe and supportive environments. For example, supervisors and managers were encouraged to regularly schedule conversations with individual employees to check in on their wellbeing. Every employee is in a different place, both physically and mentally, and guidance to leaders was to temper expectations around productivity accordingly.

Leading employees and teams through critical events requires empathetic, flexible management approaches

Further awareness of mental health in the Covid-19 context was raised with front-line managers through a virtual talk during Mental Health Week, as well as through the promotion of the newly developed Mental Health Job Aids for Managers. We also provided ongoing psychological health and safety guidance to managers through our participation in weekly conference calls hosted by the National Managers Community.

Main takeaway: Leading employees and teams through critical events requires empathetic, flexible management approaches, to meet employees where they are at. Prioritizing your own mental health self-care as a leader is a preventative factor against burnout.

3. Guiding organizational efforts

Protection of physical safety is one of 13 psychosocial factors in the workplace that impact employee mental health, and perhaps the most obvious one to address when faced with a global pandemic. But what of the remaining workplace psychological health and safety factors? We identified ‘Clear leadership and expectations, Psychological and social support, and Involvement and influence’ as three key factors for which federal organizations need to manage psychosocial risks in the Covid-19 context, to best support the mental health of leaders and employees alike.

Through a number of various fora led by the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer at Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, we provided ongoing workplace mental health guidance to federal organizations navigating through these unprecedented times. For example, Heads of organizations were advised to ensure that their departmental plans for re-occupying government worksites be executed in a manner that reduced psychological risks to the extent possible and supported ongoing psychological safety.

Much more remains to be done to help public servants through this period of disruption, transition and uncertainty

Our primary objective was to ensure psychological health and safety was integrated into decision-making, policy development and people management practices affecting the Government of Canada employees… and that mental health was treated on par with physical health when it came to occupational health and safety in the public service.

Main takeaway: Occupational health and safety extends beyond the physical, to include psychological health and safety. Organizational business continuity and resumption plans should be reviewed and revised regularly to address psychosocial risks in the workplace and prevent psychological harm.

A long road ahead

These three ways we are helping protect the mental health of Canada’s federal public servants are a mere snapshot of how we are mobilizing to prevent psychological harm at work, both during and in the wake of Covid-19. While a lot has been accomplished to date, much more remains to be done to help public servants through this period of disruption, transition and uncertainty.

Flexibility by leaders and employees alike will be key to ensuring the mental health of our workforce as we work our way through the easing of public health restrictions to define the future of work in Canada’s federal public service. — Sapna Manajan and Denis St-Jean

(Picture credit: Unsplash)