Looking back over the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, one image resonates in my memory: The salute banged out on pots and pans that ordinary Canadians gave to our health care heroes every evening at dusk. At a time when the term “heroes” is widely overused, these people were the real deal. They risked everything to provide care to thousands stricken with an entirely new virus about which we initially knew little other than its rampant spread and potential lethality.

With the burden placed on health care workers in recent years, it should be no surprise that the toll on mental and physical health has been massive. Moreover, while strains on the health care system were not new, the pandemic exacerbated the situation. So much so that many have left the profession to preserve their mental well-being. The negative impacts affect all Canadians as we struggle to repair and reclaim what most of us have taken for granted for generations: universal access to quality health care.

At Redwood, we’ve produced and delivered health care communications and training for many years. So, you can imagine our excitement to be recently working with the Canadian Mental Health Association, (CMHA) Ontario Division to develop training to help health care workers across Ontario manage workplace stresses and strengthen mental well-being. 

Let me begin by sharing some background: CMHA Ontario has been delivering Mental Health Works (MHW), a workplace mental health program, for almost 20 years in corporate settings. However, the negative impact of the pandemic on the health care workforce became increasingly more apparent and the need for a health care-specific curriculum became clear to CMHA Ontario and its partner organizations. 

Camille Quenneville, CEO of CMHA Ontario, moved quickly to hire a registered nurse who researched, engaged health care sector stakeholders, and designed a program based on the foundation of Mental Health Works. Your Health Space (YHS) is a workplace program dedicated to helping health care workers identify and address workplace stresses and work together to improve organizational well-being. With the health care sector in crisis mode, the program attracted funding, partners and participating organizations, all of whom recognized the need for urgent action.

From the beginning, a hybrid learning format was recognized as a way to meet the work constraints of health care workers. Different schedules, client care responsibilities, and a wide range of unique needs were significant limitations of the MHW modes of delivery. eLearning, with its natural flexibility, became an essential program component. 

The Your Health Space program also includes live workplace workshops conducted by YHS trainers, live Zoom session workshops, as well as a flipped classroom model – where participants can review the e-learning modules and have more focused sessions to apply the training and elicit participant discussion. Trainers are themselves health care workers and were strategically hired so that the program team has regional representation across the province of Ontario. In these and many other ways, the program meets the overarching objective of offering the flexibility required to accommodate the needs of the health care audience. 

Based on the Mental Health Works curriculum, the current program has been modified to address the needs of health care professionals working in many health care environments. 

Naturally, with a program of this nature, significant back-and-forth communication was required to understand and address the priorities and concerns of learners. Participant organizations were forthcoming in providing invaluable input that enhanced the entire program. One example was the development of multiple virtual scenarios focused on workplace mental health in which learners could easily see themselves. These scenarios help learners recognize situations that trigger mental stress and impart the benefits of choosing healthier coping strategies.

I asked Lee Downs, Redwood’s lead instructional designer, to share her insights into how the training was developed to meet the unique needs of health care workers:

“We wanted the modules to be brief, while still containing enough information for participants to get a good understanding of the topic and apply it to their own experiences. We also created a four-step approach to use when addressing mental health challenges in the workplace: recognize-focus-act-reflect.”