½ Day Continuing Education Session: Accommodating Mental Health Conditions at Work

Course Objective 

Supporting employees who are living with mental illness can be one of the most challenging areas in today’s work environment.  

This session will provide particularly useful information for HR leaders, union leaders, managers, supervisors, case managers, return to work coordinators and benefit consultants. 

The speakers will review best practice in return to work and work accommodation as well as review the clinical presentations of mental health conditions that show up in the workplace. Practical examples will also assist the participants to better understand how mental health can “show up” in the workplace. Participants will also have the opportunity to review tools to support employees at work as well as how to troubleshoot when problems occur. Opportunities will be available for questions and discussion.

Speakers

Shannon Atkins has been an Occupational Therapist for 19 years, 14 of those years specialising in the area of occupational rehabilitation. Shannon has worked for the Fraser Health  for the last 10 years, specializing in the area of  work accommodation and return to work programs.

Shannon works with employees, human resources consultants and disability management consultants and guides them in  the areas of recovery from illness and injury, including exploring ways to support staff safely at work consistent with human rights expectations and best practice in disability management.

Shannon  is also an associate with Occupational Mental Health Specialist Services, an organization that is striving to support employees with mental illness in the workplace.

Shannon believes that work roles – through paid or unpaid work-  are essential to good health and well-being. 

Monica Herrera was an Occupational Physician for a leading international oil company prior to moving to Canada eleven years ago.  She has been working with FHA since then, now leading the clinical area of the Disability programs in Workplace Health. She supports employees that are struggling at work or returning to work after a temporary or permanent disability. 

Monica is a firm believer that if we cannot change the direction of the wind, we can adjust the sails to reach our destination.  She works hard to help people to achieve that, rethinking the way we approach the job or how the job is designed, to allow the employee to be successful.

In addition to her direct work and providing clinical advice for the Workplace Health team at FH, she is a member of the Faculty in ACOEM (American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) for the Foundations Course, and an Ethics tutor for first-year medicine students at UBC.