Mental Health Resources Toolkit

Download a PDF copy of the Mental Health Resources Toolkit

 

Supporting employee well-being with practical strategies & resources.

Prioritizing employee well-being through mental health support is essential. A healthy, happy team is more productive, engaged, and resilient and less likely to suffer from workplace stress, burnout or compassion fatigue. This guide provides mental health resources for

  • Organizational leaders, managers, employees and frontline staff;

  • Military, RCMP, police and first responders;

  • Caregivers and those who may experience vicarious trauma on the job.

Scroll down for the Mental Health Resources Toolkit.

Practical strategies to cultivate a supportive & thriving workplace.

1. Encourage Open Conversations

Cultivate a workplace environment that encourages open conversations about mental health.

  • Lead by Example: Share appropriate personal stories to normalize conversations about mental health, occupational stress, burnout, vicarious trauma, moral injury and compassion fatigue.

  • Demonstrate Empathy: Listen attentively to understand employees' challenges and offer links to company-provided workflows, benefits, employee assistance programs and workplace wellness resources.

  • Ensure Privacy: Protect employees’ confidentiality to foster psychological safety, trust and openness.

2. Promote Work-Life Balance

Enable employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance via workplace and extracurricular resources.

  • Flexible Work Arrangements: Provide employee-driven options for remote work or flexible hours where feasible, while maintaining connection for collaboration and innovation.

  • Encourage Breaks: Ensure employees take regular breaks to rejuvenate during work hours. Consider providing stress management exercises, wellness rooms and outdoor spaces for staff to go for a walk or eat lunch in nature.

  • Discourage Overwork: Establish and model boundaries to prevent excessive working hours through disconnecting from work policies and best practices.

3. Provide Mental Health Resources

Ensure that employees have access to the resources they need to support their mental health and prevent burnout, compassion fatigue and occupational stress.

4. Recognize and Reward Efforts

Acknowledge and value the excellent and innovative work of both individual employees and teams.

  • Verbal Recognition: Consistently offer verbal praise during team meetings for exceptional work. Create environments that celebrate team efforts during group coffee breaks, lunchtime gatherings, or professional development days.

  • Written Acknowledgments: Send thank-you notes or emails to individuals that highlight specific achievements. Additionally, provide employees with consistent feedback on their performance and thank them for even a routine job well done.

  • Incentive Programs: Establish reward programs to honour exceptional performance. While monetary incentives are always appreciated, small recognitions, such as gift certificates for food and beverages or fitness memberships, go a long way to creating a positive work environment where staff feel valued.

5. Foster Social Connections

Create opportunities for employees to connect and build relationships both inside and outside of work.

  • Team-building activities: Organize regular team-building activities to foster employees’ connection and collaboration company-wide, within teams, or departments. Consider utilizing personality profiling resources, such as the Enneagram, for teams to foster cohesion, mitigate conflict, and enhance communication.

  • Social events: Host social events to provide employees with opportunities to connect outside of work. This is especially important for community-minded millennials and Gen Z employees.

  • Mentorship programs: Establish mentorship programs to connect employees with experienced colleagues, allowing them to learn the skills necessary to excel in their roles while fostering meaningful relationships.

6. Educate and Train Leaders

Provide leaders and managers with the essential knowledge and skills to enhance their team’s mental health and well-being.

  • Mental Health Awareness Training: Equip leaders with the ability to recognize signs of distress, burnout and compassion fatigue through practical sector-specific workshops and training.

  • Communication Skills Training: Develop leaders' proficiency in effective communication and active listening, enabling them to ask intelligent, empathetic questions that foster a psychologically safe environment.

  • Healthy Boundary Training: Implement onboarding training for new leaders and managers to equip them in their relationships with direct reports. Provide workshops that enable senior staff to maintain healthy boundaries, understand why they may inadvertently cross their boundaries when helping others, and know what to do when direct reports act in a manner that is detrimental to themselves, their coworkers, clients, or stakeholders.

Implementing these mental health strategies can foster an organizational culture that values, supports, and empowers employees. Prioritizing employee well-being boosts productivity, reduces absenteeism, and fosters engagement, ultimately benefiting both your employees' lives and your organization's success.

“Happy, healthy employees create healthy organizations that thrive.”

-Bonita Eby, CEO, Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development Inc.

Mental Health Resources Toolkit

Download a PDF copy of the Mental Health Resources Toolkit

Mental Health Resources for Burnout, Compassion Fatigue & Workplace Stress

  • The Mental Health Continuum Model (MHCM)

    A tool provided by the Government of Canada in collaboration with the United States Marine Corps to monitor and manage mental health.

  • Burnout Assessment

    Free burnout assessment, including both professional and personal profiles.


Mental Health Resources for First Responders, Military and Veterans

General Mental Health Resources

  • Canadian Mental Health Association

    330 community locations across Canada offering mental health supports, including many free options. Find your local CMHA


Mental Health Resources in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge & Guelph

Your trusted partner in employee health.

About the author

Bonita Eby is a Burnout Prevention & Organizational Culture Consultant, Executive Coach, and owner of Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development Inc., specializing in burnout prevention and wellness for organizations and individuals. Bonita is on a mission to end burnout.