Pink Shirt Day Coffee and Conversations

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Wednesday, February 28th, 2018
9:00 AM to 10:30 AM

According to the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, 500 000 Canadians miss at least one day of work each week due to mental illness. The annual cost to the Canadian economy is $51 billion. Organizational Leaders must support employees with mental illness and reduce root causes in the workplace, including bullying, intimidation and isolation.

By living the values of empathy, inclusion and equity to create safe, supportive and inclusive workplace cultures, leaders ensure that an individual or organizational crisis does not become a lasting or repetitive struggle. Mental illness is the number one cause of disability in Canada. Many leaders are not aware how they impact those statistics when they allow cultures that reduce trust and stigmatize mental health to persist. Despite participating in national campaigns like Bell Let’s Talk Day, actions and behaviours people perceive as bullying are often not recognized. Organizations that espouse the values of empathy and compassion must learn to support employees in a mental health crisis in the unique way that person needs.

On Bell’s Let’s Talk day, we recognize the need to end the stigma of mental illness and on Pink Shirt Day we recognize the need to stand up to bullying. Now is the time to look closely at the relationship between these two workplace issues. We as leaders need to commit to developing organizations that actually end bullying and support employees on the verge of crisis.