As more Canadians struggle with their mental health, many feel they aren’t getting sufficient support from their employers.“There were some increases during COVID around mental health and suicidality, and people are still struggling,” says Dr. Donna Ferguson, a clinical psychologist at CAMH.
Ms. Joshi says that those organizations that fail to address employee mental health challenges effectively risk exacerbating the problem, especially in extreme situations. “I think they can be doing more, as you can see in the data, particularly around mental health and suicide,” says CAMH’s Dr. Ferguson. “The workplace has an obligation — not just a legal, but an ethical and moral obligation — to foster and accommodate mental health in the workplace, and I just don’t think that they’re doing enough.