HR DEPARTMENT
PTSD results from exposure to a horrific or
life-threatening experience. This disorder
is about what happened to a person, not
about what is wrong with that person.
PTSD affects many people, including
all those who love and care about them.
Indeed, there are many instances of sec-ondary
PTSD or caregiver burnout in-volved
with those who support them.
In the workplace, we have a strong un-derstanding
of physical disease and inju-ry,
and handle them appropriately. We are
quick to accommodate a worker who has
cancer or a broken leg. With greater under-standing,
mental health issues will be han-dled
appropriately, too.
We need to break the silence and stig-ma
surrounding PTSD and all other mental
health issues. We need to work together to
ensure that those with PTSD do not suffer
in silence. People with PTSD are ordinary
people reacting normally to an abnormal
experience.
The Canadian Mental Health Association
considers PTSD a mental illness. Currently,
Ontario recognizes PTSD as a workplace
injury. PTSD Saskatchewan is lobbying
with the Saskatchewan government to have
Worker’s Compensation Saskatchewan
recognize it as a workplace injury. With
treatment and understanding, it can be re-duced
and managed, but may not be 100
per cent curable. Those who struggle with
it are not crazy, weak, failures or without
help and hope. They are learning to thrive
again within their new normal. Please do
not judge them, try to fix them, tell them
to smarten up or pull themselves together.
They are only trying to survive, day by day.
Unless we personally suffer the same af-fliction,
we can never fully understand
those who are afflicted. Some things that
HR managers and supervisors can do are
the following:
• Try to imagine a day and
night in their shoes;
• Treat employees with PTSD
with kindness and respect, en-couragement
and support;
• Be supportive of their loved ones
and caregivers. Realize that living
with PTSD every day is a victory;
• Work with professionals to understand
if there is a need to accommodate; and
• Work with professionals to
learn what an appropriate ac-commodation
might be.
There are currently a number of groups
in Saskatchewan doing work with PTSD on
a peer support basis (this list is not compre-hensive;
rather it shows places to approach
for assistance). These groups also have the
knowledge and ability to refer people to the
appropriate places for treatment.
• Canadian Mental Health
Saskatchewan – www.sk.cmha.ca
• OSI-CAN Support Initiative
– www.osican.ca
• Royal Canadian Legion, Saskatchewan
Command – www.sasklegion.ca
• PTSD Saskatoon –
ptsdsaskatoon@hotmail.com
• PTSD Regina – sksd@gmail.com
The HR staff should be familiar with the
possibility of a traumatic, horrific or life-threatening
event causing long-term is-sues
like PTSD. For any of these events, HR
should be prepared to provide debriefing
for all those involved in any way and coun-selling
referrals for those directly involved.
As leaders in the organization, we need to
model appropriate behaviour when dealing
with employee mental health issues in the
workplace. Understanding PTSD and how
it impacts people is a step in the right direc-tion
to increasing our capacity and ability
to behave appropriately.
Pat Varga is an associate of Knibbs/
associates Sourcing People and Knibbs/
associates HR Consulting. Both
organizations provide HR and employee
recruitment services to large and small
businesses. Varga is a professional HR
consultant with many years of experience in
the field, and a proud Navy veteran, which
has resulted in her advocating for veterans
for many years.
Leah Knibbs is the owner of Knibbs/
associates HR Consulting and a partner
in Knibbs/associates Sourcing People. She
is a professional HR consultant with a
farming background, as well as many years’
experience in the field and teaching at the
university level.
Hopefully this article has stimulated
more questions − feel free to contact
Varga at pat@knibbs.ca or Knibbs at
leah@knibbs.ca for further discussion.
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