Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/379393
6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com HEALTH & SAFETY NEWS N.S. tackling MSIs in health care By Amanda Silliker A new initiative in Nova Scotia is aiming to reduce musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) in the health- care industry. Soteria Strains, a project jointly funded by the provincial government and industry partners, will engage health-care workers across the province in the development of programs that will reduce sprains and strains. "Many workers in this industry suffer not just physical pain, but they are also not able to get up and go to work or play with their kids or do the rec- reation activities they love, sometimes for very long periods of time," said Mark Williams, Soteria Strains project lead, who co-presented the initiative at the Safety Services Nova Scotia workplace safety confer- ence earlier this year. Health and human services is the largest employed sector in N.S. The injury frequency was 3.05 for 2013. In 2011 almost 80 per cent of all loss-time claims reported to the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of Nova Scotia by health-care workers were Canadian Forces preps battle plan for soldiers' mental health By Liz Bernier T he Canadian Forces has launched a new aware- ness video about mental health care in the Canadian military. The video, Mental Health in the Canadian Forces: You're Not Alone, features many sol- diers sharing their experiences. "Within three weeks, we had over 200 volunteers," said Suzanne Bailey, senior staff offi cer of social work and mental health education with the Canadian Forces in Ottawa. "They were all passionate about the fact that seeking mental health care was good for their career, it was good for their family (and) they found it benefi cial personally." The Canadian Forces has a broad range of resources available for treating operational stress injuries (OSIs). To pre-emptively address these types of injuries, soldiers receive training through the Road to Mental Readiness program before they are deployed. "(We) wanted to give them some really simple tools to manage those situations where fear and panic might come into play, and help them recog- nize how they might respond in those situations… with the ultimate goal of mitigating longer-term mental health problems," said Bailey. After a deployment of 60 or more days, soldiers participate in an enhanced post-deployment screen- ing process that looks for signs of distress or mental health injury. Assistance is readily available at every military base in the country, said Paul Sedge, a psychiatrist with the Canadian Forces. "We have a mental health clinic, or a mental health clinic equivalent, at every base in Canada. So any- where a soldier goes, they can get access to mental health services… We also have seven of those clinics that have been upgraded to operational trauma and stress support centres, so these are mental health clin- ics that specialize in mental health injuries," he said. There are also base health and wellness services, family resource centres, health promotion teams and a chaplaincy branch that includes multi-denom- inational chaplains. A free, confi dential 800 number, operated by the Canadian Forces member assistance program, quickly connects personnel or their dependents with counselling services. There are also crisis counselling walk-in clinics available. no sUiCiDe epiDeMiC A public perception exists that there is a suicide epi- demic among Canadian soldiers, said Sedge — but that perception is untrue. "The suicide rate is not higher among (Canadian Forces) members, it's not increasing, and there's not a suicide epidemic," he said. Thirteen suicides by soldiers were reported in 2013, according to the CBC, which led to increased scrutiny about the availability of mental health care for soldiers. But a 2013 National Defence report, based on data from 1995 to 2012, found suicide rates among soldiers are lower than those among the overall population, and there has been no statis- tically signifi cant change in suicide rates since 1995. "It's very hard when you see news reports about people suggesting that we don't have the services available to our members and members can't get the care they need," said Sedge. "The reality is quite the opposite." That's why the Forces has made awareness a prior- ity, so soldiers can be well-versed in what resources are available to them. Liz Bernier is a news editor with Canadian HR Reporter, a sister publication of COS. All recommendations accepted in WorkSafeBC review By Mallory Hendry T he British Columbia government has announced it will be acting on all recommendations in the WorkSafeBC Review and Action Plan, released July 15. The 192-page report, prepared by WorkSafeBC administrator Gordon Macatee, comes in the wake of horrifi c sawmill explosions in Burns Lake, B.C., and Prince George, B.C., where WorkSafeBC was accused by health and safety investigators of botching the investigations that followed. The fi rst explosion injured 20 workers and killed two, while the latter injured 22 workers and claimed the lives of two others. The recommendations, accepted by Shirley Bond, the minister responsible for labour, aim to strengthen various aspects of WorkSafeBC's operations, with particular focus on occupational health and safety inspection and investigation. "Action will be taken immediately on key recommendations around worker safety. There are other recommendations that will take some time to fully implement because they require consultations, legislation or policy changes," Bond said. The board of WorkSafeBC has accepted the action plan and is working on implementing all recommendations pertaining to the agency. According to Bond, key recommendations for immediate action include: • moving forward with the development of occupational health and safety policies to specify reason- able steps for employers, workers and supervisors to address combustible dust hazards • signing the memorandums of understanding with police services and the Criminal Justice Branch • implementing the sustained compliance plan for sawmills as outlined in the report • developing a plan for ongoing inspection of other wood product manufacturers and pellet mills by WorkSafeBC prevention offi cers with appropriate enforcement efforts to bring this sector into sustained compliance. But the report does not go far enough to fi x the agency's problems, according to the United Steelworkers (USW), the largest private sector union in both Canada and North America representing 1.2 million active and retired workers. "It is abundantly clear the agency's problems run deep and are engrained in a culture of secrecy," USW Western Canada director Stephen Hunt said. For the USW, the July 15 report fails to restore confi dence in WorkSafeBC's ability to keep workers safe. The union said the families who lost loved ones in the sawmill explosions deserve better than what essentially "tinkers around the edges of a very fl awed agency." USW is calling for a public inquiry. "The report fails to provide any explanation to the debacle that was WorkSafeBC's investigation. A public inquiry is required to provide answers to family members, workers and the public. Only then can WorkSafeBC hope to rebuild its standing," Hunt said. Mallory Hendry is the assistant editor of Canadian Occupational Safety.