{"id":17625,"date":"2019-11-22T08:58:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T13:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/how-borden-ladner-gervais-brought-its-mental-health-strategy-in-house-138828"},"modified":"2019-11-22T08:58:11","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T13:58:11","slug":"how-borden-ladner-gervais-brought-its-mental-health-strategy-in-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/11\/22\/how-borden-ladner-gervais-brought-its-mental-health-strategy-in-house\/","title":{"rendered":"How Borden Ladner Gervais brought its mental-health strategy in-house"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"alignleft clearfix\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption feature-image alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Employer-strategy-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-feature size-feature wp-post-image\" alt title=\"How Borden Ladner Gervais brought its mental-health strategy in-house\"> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\"><span>Alethea Spiridon<\/span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;November 22, 2019<\/p>\n<p>Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is taking its employees\u2019 mental health seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Four years ago, it implemented a strategy to focus on building awareness, reducing stigma and encouraging self-care and wellness. This started with one-on-one mental-health first aid training for all employees, says Laleh Moshiri, the Toronto-based law firm\u2019s national director of diversity and inclusion. \u201cRaising awareness was the purpose, because we all have friends in the workplace, and it\u2019s just good for everybody to better understand some of the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>BLG also rolled out the workplace mental-health leadership certificate offered by the faculty of health sciences at Queen\u2019s University in partnership with Morneau Shepell Ltd. and Bell Media Inc. \u201cI did both of them myself and I think they\u2019re terrific,\u201d says Moshiri.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/workplace-mental-health-training-on-the-rise-sanofi-survey-131311\">Workplace mental-health training on the rise: Sanofi survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In addition, the organization often focuses on mental health in its monthly diversity and inclusion bulletin, and includes links to resources and articles on its company-wide intranet. This month, BLG is increasing the coverage for mental-health and psychological services under its extended health-care benefits plan, from $1,000 to $5,000. \u201cWe actually made sure every type of mental-health care provider was covered. . . . We made sure that whatever the designation was . . . that that was covered,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Employees also have access to educational courses to help promote health and well-being, additional mental-health training through the Canadian Bar Association and onsite counselling.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The ideal environment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The workplace is an optimal setting for creating a culture of health, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Communication structures are already in place;<\/li>\n<li>Programs and policies come from one central team;<\/li>\n<li>Social support networks are available;<\/li>\n<li>Employers can offer incentives to reinforce healthy behaviours; and<\/li>\n<li>Employers can use data to track progress and measure the effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Ease of access<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The onsite offering is a unique feature of BLG\u2019s wellness program. Counsellors are available twice a month in each of the law firm\u2019s five offices across Canada. Employees receive an email with the counsellors\u2019 dates, and then can reach out directly for an appointment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know who is seeing the counsellors,\u201d says Moshiri. \u201cPart of the reason we introduced this was ease of access; you want to make the help as easy as possible to access. But I would say the biggest part is to demonstrate that seeking self-care is part of our values, that we\u2019re wanting to make part of the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for any legal or privacy issues, the counsellors are all bound by the ethical rules of their profession and confidentiality agreements, as well as their own legal obligations, adds Moshiri.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/plan-sponsors-should-tread-carefully-when-considering-mental-health-apps-137141\">Plan sponsors urged to tread carefully when considering mental-health apps<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While Den Temin, a board-certified clinical sexologist based in Toronto, offers clinical practice and services for professional development to individuals, she also provides leadership and training development in workplaces. The diverse nature of her practice makes it easier to go directly into a workplace because she could also be going in for coaching or training of any kind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a program called \u2018From the Bedroom to the Boardroom\u2019 [and it\u2019s about] transferable skills,\u201d she says. \u201cSo when I go into offices, people don\u2019t really know if I\u2019m in for training or a workshop, or actual clinical therapeutic services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This diversity is advantageous compared to other in-house counsellors or therapists, where everyone knows who they are and what services they offer. Moshiri acknowledges this could be an issue, noting she certainly took it into account when BLG first decided to offer mental-health therapy in the workplace.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Safe space<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alongside the program\u2019s aim of easing access, BLG also considered employees\u2019 privacy. In setting up the program, for instance, Moshiri went into all of the law firm\u2019s offices to find the most secluded room. \u201cWe found the most confidential, private space, a more hidden, tucked-away space that we could find in each of our offices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robin Bailey, managing partner at Aria Benefits, says it\u2019s important for employers to consider privacy when bringing counsellors and therapists into the workplace. \u201cIt depends on the size of the company, but if I take my broker hat off and I\u2019m thinking as a business owner \u2014 and this is something I want to do for my employees here \u2014 my question is privacy, because all of a sudden there\u2019s someone sitting in conference room B and I see Joe walking in and I think, \u2018Oh, Joe\u2019s got problems. What are Joe\u2019s issues?\u2019 So I think having something like a virtual platform where people can do it in the privacy of their own home or at their own desk and office is a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/niagara-casinos-earns-mental-health-award-for-prevention-awareness-strategy-137655\">Niagara Casinos earns mental-health award for prevention, awareness strategy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For BLG, part of its strategy was to remove stigma. Moshiri feels confident that, as an employer, it\u2019s slowly chipping away at that barrier, evidenced by the fact that \u201cpeople are comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, she believes the offering will have achieved the highest level of success if an employee says to a colleague, \u201cHi, I\u2019m off to see the counsellor,\u201d essentially reaching a point where seeing an in-house therapist is a non-issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s sort of what we aspire to. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re quite there yet. But I have to say, we\u2019ve now had this program for four years, and the rate [of usage] has gone up . . . [because] people are talking about it. . . . People are coming to me and saying, \u2018I went to see the counsellor. She was great.\u2019 So I think we\u2019re headed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:alethea.spiridon@tc.tc\">Alethea Spiridon<\/a> is managing editor of Benefits Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/how-borden-ladner-gervais-brought-its-mental-health-strategy-in-house-138828\">Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alethea Spiridon&nbsp;|&nbsp;November 22, 2019 Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is taking its employees\u2019 mental health seriously. Four years ago, it implemented a strategy to focus on building awareness, reducing stigma and encouraging self-care and wellness.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}