Concurrent Sessions

The pandemic created unparalleled levels of trauma and burn-out, necessitating innovative approaches to retention to minimize outmigration of staff from the health system, including health leaders. Based on the cycle of compassion, we nurtured an organic evolution of our leadership development strategy to identify suffering, and take action to relieve the suffering.

This session will provide an overview of this work and detail the actionable steps of the development and implementation of a compassionate leadership approach:

Step One: grounding our leadership development in a healthy leadership culture. We will discuss compassion and how compassionate leadership was integrated into all facets of the program.

Step Two: A focus on healthy leadership structures. We will discuss how we considered leadership wellness into our organizational structure and into our Strategic plan.

Step Three: the learning strategies tailored to our individual leaders, which include coaching, human resources training, mindfulness training, and self-care/self compassion training.

CMHA Toronto first developed this one-day Trauma Fundamentals Training program in 2016 to equip our staff with essential knowledge on trauma, empathic strain, and compassion fatigue. Recognizing the program’s impact, we have expanded its reach and are now delivering it to other organizations and professionals in the mental health field. CMHA Toronto has begun providing this training to Toronto Public Library staff, supporting them in their interactions with diverse community members, including those experiencing mental health challenges. We have also partnered with the agencies involved in the Toronto Community Crisis Service to deliver this training, enhancing their capacity to respond empathetically and effectively to individuals in crisis. Designed to empower front-line mental health providers, this program equips participants with practical skills and evidence-based insights, fostering resilience and promoting trauma-informed care in a variety of professional and community settings.

Leaders are critical resources and key champions for supporting employee wellbeing and building a positive workplace culture. Challenges like COVID-19 and the proposed regional dissolution in Peel have impacted Health Services employees and leaders over the past four years, leading to burnout and compassion fatigue. This session will explore innovative ways to engage leaders on psychological safety, emphasizing their role as champions in driving organizational change and building a sustainable approach to workplace culture. A comprehensive logic model for leadership capacity building will be presented that outlines the steps needed to achieve long-term impact on organizational culture. Presenters will share tools and resources tailored for leaders, including “Know Do Share” documents – concise resources for leaders to understand key topics related to building psychological safety with their teams. By prioritizing leadership development, psychological health and safety knowledge, and a people-first approach, organizations can foster a safe and inclusive workplace culture.

Ontario Shores has a multi-faceted Leadership Development Strategy, focused on the development and engagement of current and emerging leaders throughout the life cycle of a leader.

Ontario Shores has three levels of leaders – managers, directors and executives. With managers as the largest cohort, Ontario Shores developed two programs to support the development of emerging managers. One is an education program for frontline staff with aspirations of becoming an administrative or clinical leader and the second is a Leadership Readiness Program, designed specifically to develop frontline staff for clinical manager roles, which is the largest cohort of managers within that group.

In health care, teams comprise members with distinct skills, resulting in certain individuals becoming more sought after yet also susceptible to burnout. Within our team at Canadian Hearing Services (CHS), Deaf staff members who can effectively engage with clients without the mediation of an interpreter frequently manage lengthy wait lists and handle the most complex cases. This presentation will delineate our multi-pronged strategy for short- and long-term solutions to address potential mental health disparities on our team, focusing on: (1) upskilling through placement programs; (2) peer support initiatives; (3) work-life balance; (4) innovative onboarding to address hearing privilege and anti-audism; (5) Mental Health First Aid for the Deaf pilot program which CHS has initiated and developed in partnership with Mental Health Commission of Canada; and lastly (6) increased ethical dilemma support for everyday moral distress and uncertainty.

This session explores practical strategies to address leadership overload and improve work-life balance in healthcare settings, particularly in resource-constrained environments like rural hospitals. Using real-world case studies from Kemptville District Hospital, we demonstrate how identifying root causes—such as excessive workloads, inefficient processes, and lack of support systems—can drive meaningful change.

Case studies include:

Tanya’s Journey in Clinical Leadership: Structured on-call systems and centralized tools reduced after-hours demands.
Eon’s Administrative Overload: Technology investments and cross-training transitioned workflows from reactive to proactive.
Brittany’s Personal and Professional Balance: Building psychological safety and workplace culture enabled resilience and peer support.

Participants will gain actionable insights to address similar challenges in their organizations, promoting sustainable leadership wellness. This presentation highlights how the identification of root causes is critical to reversing these trends.

Youthdale is in the early stages of implementing the Sanctuary Model, a trauma-informed approach designed to transform organizational culture. This presentation will detail the significant advantages of the Sanctuary Model in creating a supportive work environment and achieving positive results for both staff and the young people we support.

The Sanctuary Model is a methodical approach aimed at establishing a cohesive organizational context for healing from psychological and social trauma. By adopting trauma-informed policies and practices, Youthdale aims to boost safety, health, wellness, trust, and productivity. These efforts extend beyond the workplace, positively impacting team members’ families, communities, and the young people we support, creating a place where individuals feel safe, solve problems effectively, treat each other with respect, and contribute to the common good.

 

There are over 4 million caregivers in Ontario who provide unpaid support to family members and friends. Many of these caregivers also work in caring professions. For double-duty caregivers, balancing the demands of providing care professionally and personally can lead to emotional strain and burnout. Double-duty caregivers are more likely to reduce their work hours or decline a promotion if they provide four or more hours of care per week. Without support they are more likely to take a leave to manage stress. However, there are strategies that workplaces and double-duty caregivers can action to find better balance.

Join the Ontario Caregiver Organization and Hamilton Health Sciences as we explore strategies and resources for double-duty caregivers including identifying their needs, communicating across teams, and finding the right supports. Hamilton Health Sciences will share the steps they have taken to better identify and support caregiving employees through their award-winning SHINE program.

In this session, participants will learn more about:

• Working caregivers across Ontario and experiences shared by double-duty caregivers in the health and community sectors
• Key strategies to help guide leadership and staff that promote wellbeing in the workplace
• Free tools and services to support those balancing work and care

Our Employee Wellness Program focuses on creating impactful moments by fostering a culture of partnership, innovation, and real-time feedback integration. By collaborating with employees, leaders, and wellness experts, we design programs that are not only tailored to individual and organizational needs but also adaptable and scalable. Innovation is at the heart of our approach with data-driven insights to provide personalized wellness solutions. Through continuous engagement and real-time application of employee feedback, we ensure our wellness initiatives evolve in response to changing needs, maximizing their relevance and effectiveness. This dynamic approach helps employees prioritize their well-being while enhancing productivity, morale, and overall organizational success. By making every moment matter, we create a thriving workplace that supports long-term health, job satisfaction, and a sustainable work-life balance for all.

Leaders with strong change management skills don’t just implement successful initiatives—they create environments where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to thrive. In healthcare’s
high-pressure landscape, change-capable leadership is a key driver of psychological safety, team morale, and staff retention.

This session, led by Erin Landry-Baker and Dr. Blair Baker, explores how mastering change leadership can reduce burnout, boost resilience, and promote well-being across teams.

Participants will learn how to:

• Build trust and psychological safety during times of organizational transition.
• Use change management competencies to maintain morale and support staff well-being.
• Align leadership practices with organizational goals to reduce turnover and foster a culture of care.

This session addresses the mental health challenges faced by individuals with concussion/brain injury in the workplace. With over 1.5 million Canadians living with the effects of concussion/brain injury, someone you work with has likely been directly impacted. Participants will gain insight into the mental health challenges that often accompany concussion/brain injury as highlighted by current research and industry findings. The session will explore common barriers to returning to work and offer practical, evidence-based strategies for creating inclusive and supportive workplace environments. Participants will leave with actionable tools to foster a more inclusive and compassionate workplace. This session is ideal for anyone looking to support the mental health and well-being of employees and build an environment where all individuals can thrive.

Healthcare organizations face challenges that contribute to unhealthy workplaces including increased job demands, inadequate staffing and a lack of awareness on how to respond to these stresses. A healthy work environment (HWE) grounded in psychological health and safety and trauma-informed approaches, is one that fosters employee well-being and promotes positive work environments, achieving better outcomes for the community.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), has developed best practice guidelines (BPGs) to assist healthcare organizations in creating and sustaining positive working environments. This workshop introduces leaders to these BPGs, emphasizing their alignment with the 15 psychological factors and trauma-informed approaches to create healthy workplaces.

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with and apply recommendations focusing on professionalism, conflict management, violence prevention, and leadership. Attendees will be provided with practical resources and tools they can take back to their organizations to drive practice change and foster a healthier work culture.

In today’s fast-paced world, leaders often face the challenge of balancing performance with personal well-being. This transformative talk will guide leaders on a journey to rediscover their authentic selves and create a ripple effect of empowerment within their teams. Kristina M. Holle, founder of The Authentic You Coaching, shares how aligning leadership with authenticity and well-being fosters resilience, connection, and sustainable success.

Learn how to prioritize self-care as a leadership tool, cultivate emotional intelligence, and build a thriving workplace culture rooted in psychological safety and trust. Through actionable strategies and powerful insights, this session will inspire you to lead with intention, tap into your inner wisdom, and ignite the potential of those around you.

Discover how embracing your authentic self as a leader not only transforms your own life but also empowers your team to achieve greatness.

About a third of CCRW’s clients report living with a mental health disability. More than ever, conversations about mental health disabilities and accommodations are happening in workplaces across the country. Trauma informed workplaces and accommodations are a central component in fostering workplace inclusion of mental health related disabilities.

As part of CCRW’s comprehensive approach to service evaluation, we collect quantitative and qualitative data related to employability and workplace outcomes from our clients. In this session, we will present some of these findings as they relate to jobseekers with mental health disabilities, including workplace accommodation needs, workplace wellness, and intersecting sociodemographic factors.

Pulling on this data and the service provider experience, we present a framework for creating trauma informed workplaces for all employees therefore fostering a more inclusive and healthier workplace.

The increased focus on healthcare worker occupational stress injury has been described as a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a part of a larger project seeking to learn from experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are interviewing leaders in staff wellness in hospitals within the Greater Toronto Area about their organizations’ response to staff needs. To-date, fifteen individuals representing seven organizations have participated. We will describe the various approaches taken to support staff well-being, including peer support programs, preparation of physical space for staff to decompress on-site, differing forms of psychoeducation, updates to organizational policies, critical incident debriefing, mental health first aid, fitness classes, pet therapy, massage therapy, and more. We will outline the ways that organizations evaluated program success (e.g., tracking program uptake) and gaps in the work done (e.g., measuring impact), along with key learnings from the perspectives of these program leaders.

The Montfort Management Model emphasizes the importance of fostering meaningful connections between managers and employees to enhance an engaged and healthy workplace culture and improve retention. This session explores how Montfort Hospital integrates staff recognition, employee involvement in problem-solving, Lean principles to remove waste, and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to promote wellness and reduce turnover. Participants will learn how initiatives such as shared decision-making processes, structured recognition programs, EDI training and streamlined workflows have empowered employees, boosted morale, and strengthened collaboration. This approach not only supports psychological safety but also drives organizational excellence by aligning employee needs with leadership practices. Case studies from our hospital’s retention strategies will be presented, providing participants with actionable insights to implement in their own organizations.

The healthcare sector has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years, with staff working in complex, high-pressure, trauma-exposed environments. A resilient, empowered workforce is essential to delivering compassionate, person-centred care. At St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph (SJHCG), we are proud of our efforts to support staff well-being through initiatives like the Centre for Resilience, Learning & Growth and our multidisciplinary Resilience Working Group. These strategies have helped enhance resilience across our organization, enabling our staff to thrive in their roles and provide exceptional care. This session will share our journey, including key initiatives like Campfire Conversations, Wellness Moments, wellness webinars and continued dialogue with our colleagues. Participants will explore the importance of organizational values, discuss how resilience applies at all levels, and learn practical strategies to strengthen resilience within their own teams. Together, we’ll share best practices to build supportive, resilient healthcare workplaces for all.

The Canadian Mental Health Association Durham (CMHA Durham) is dedicated to fostering a health care workplace environment that prioritizes and encourages equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and anti-racism (EDIA-A) through co-design. In today’s diverse workplace, wellness programs must involve and engage employees in developing collaborative initiatives to champion wellness while immersing EDIA-A into their wellness initiatives.

Our interactive presentation will highlight the development of a co-designed wellness room to exemplify how wellness programs can be developed with a clear EDIA-A approach. Participants will learn the importance of co-design as a key strategy for creating inclusive programs that promote mental heath and wellbeing for everyone, and gain insights on developing their own inclusive workplace wellness strategies. This interactive presentation will invite participants to discover practical approaches and tools for embedding EDIA-A principles into wellness programs, enhancing workplace culture and employee satisfaction.

 

In 2020, the Ministry of Long-Term Care released the “Long-Term Care Staffing Study”, a report with guidance for staffing levels, models, working conditions, and sector culture for Long Term Care (LTC) centres. The report recommended that LTC centres adopt the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard). A senior leader recognized the need to improve employee wellbeing in the region’s LTC centres, and advocated for dedicated resources to support implementation of the Standard. . While these Change, Culture and Wellness Advisors’ journey is just beginning, they will describe their role, share the high-level approach that informs their work, and actionable recommendations that they have implemented across five LTC centres and Adult Day programs. This will include sharing their experience and highlights of their learning from the Ontario Centre for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care’s Workplace Mental Health Program.

This presentation introduces a new psychological health and well-being tool designed to support healthcare workers and leaders in navigating their well-being needs. The Stepped Care Model tool provides a structured, easy-to-use approach to identifying and connecting individuals to the appropriate supports and services, ensuring timely and effective care at every level of need. In it’s first year, the tool has made significant impact by supporting leadership development in influencing psychological and emotional well-being, as well, improving organizational psychological wellness frameworks across the central region, enhancing both individual well-being and overall workplace culture. Leaders have found it to be an invaluable resource, helping them engage in compassionate, supportive conversations with employees and better manage the emotional and psychological challenges of healthcare work. By guiding leaders in offering tailored interventions and resources, the SCM Tool not only supports the immediate needs of workers but also strengthens the supervisor citizenship skills and broader organizational framework for health and well-being, ensuring a sustainable, proactive approach to workplace wellness and narrative for leaders.

Healthcare workers in Canada deserve to feel safe. The increasing severity of Canada’s healthcare crisis shows no signs of slowing, and healthcare workers bear the brunt of this stress each day. Right now, in healthcare, the workforce is experiencing unprecedented levels of personal and professional distress. CMA’s 2021 National Physician Health Survey shows high rates of burnout (53%), depression (48%), low professional fulfillment (79%) and alarmingly high reports of intimidation, bullying or harassment (80%). We know that more needs to be done to foster safe, inclusive, and health-promoting training and practice environments.

This session will: present the current state of health workforce safety in Canada and the challenges experienced by healthcare providers; explore approaches for creating safer work and learning environments and the interconnectedness of physical, psychological and cultural safety; discuss the road forward and seek input on the future direction and vision for creating a thriving health workforce through health workforce safety.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic the mental health care sector has seen an increased need for prioritizing staff health and wellness to meet psychological health and safety objectives. What was once managed through broad policies and initiatives has transformed into developing equity-based programming that meets the diverse needs of staff for psychological wellness. Over the past several years, Services and Housing In the Province (SHIP) has championed the philosophy of “For You, By You” in the development of a psychological health and safety plan by creating an atmosphere of critical acceptance using five pillars to foster braver spaces for employees. These pillars include courageous communication, staying outside the story, honouring professionalism, emotional safety and vulnerability. Critical acceptance is a foundational principle for changing the organizational culture to one that understands the intersections of psychological and physical health and safety. Follow SHIP’s journey of recognition to implementation of employee driven change.

The ongoing Health Human Resource (HHR) crisis is contributing to rising rates of substance use and substance use disorders among healthcare workers. More acutely evident on the post-pandemic environment, these issues are closely linked to burnout, mental health challenges, and stigma (especially when experienced by healthcare workers). However, the Substance Use Health of HHR is often overlooked in workplace health and safety initiatives. This session blends evidence-based strategies with lived and living expertise to address these challenges with actionable tailored solutions, by focusing on shared priority areas identified in an HHR Symposium. We will present an innovative toolkit designed to equip organizations to take action to reduce stigma, improve workplace culture, and create safer environments where employees feel supported in seeking help for their Substance Use Health.

Scarborough Health Network (SHN) received feedback identifying risk factors related to psychological health and safety, highlighting the need for increased resources. This reinforces our strong Health and Safety Commitment Statement. With a rise in requests for learning opportunities to further enhance transformational leadership development associated with well-being, focusing on engagement and valuing practices.

The goal of this learning intervention is to equip our people with tools to identify, address, and promote mental health, reduce the stigma of mental illness in the workplace, recognize behavioural changes that could indicate mental health issues in oneself or others, and learn coping strategies for navigating the mental health continuum.

Objectives are:

• Cultivate a culture where participating in mental health awareness is encouraged
• Maximize utilization of available staff support resources
• Increase knowledge and accessibility of existing supports such as Employee Assistance Program
• Learn about other professional development programs such as PeopleFirst Compassionate Care Training