Saturday, November 18, 2023

Addressing Substance Use and Mental Health

CLAC is actively engaged with government ministers to help workers struggling with substance use and mental health

By Miranda O’Krane, Workplace Wellness Coordinator

Last fall, CLAC was invited to attend a BC joint minister roundtable on substance use in the trades. We were invited along with several other unions, health sector partners, industry, and community groups.

MLAs Jennifer Whiteside and Harry Bains brought everyone together to discuss how to create initiatives to support people who work in the trades and are struggling with substance use. Dr. Aamir Bharmal, Joe Pinto, and Vicky Waldron provided presentations to the group.

The feedback and input by all groups led to a project plan to develop three working groups:

Education and Prevention
Understanding and Awareness of Treatment Process and Options
Pain Management

I have joined the Education and Prevention working group, and we had our first two meetings in November. Our group is discussing and exploring various education, prevention, and harm reduction initiatives. We are identifying unique projects that can be expanded and adapted.

The aim is to create a list of potential collaborations and initiatives for all partners in early 2024.

In November, CLAC and the Progressive Contractors Association (PCA), which represents many CLAC-signatory contractors, partnered together to meet with several ministers in the BC Legislature and to host a BC United Caucus working dinner. Nineteen of the 27 ministers invited to the dinner were able to attend. This gave us a great opportunity to introduce CLAC and PCA and speak about how important it is for the government to be aware of what is happening within all sectors and how we are working toward creating better policy.

I recently spent a couple of days in Victoria speaking with various ministers about what CLAC is doing in the scope of mental health. Larry Richardson (CLAC Training BC director), Ryan Bruce (CLAC BC government relations manager), and the PCA team organized the program. It was a fruitful couple of days for everyone involved, with the topic of mental health on construction sites top of mind.

I advocated for CLAC’s wellness program and shared how the current trajectory of addictions and mental health is affecting all sectors of the workplace. Together with Minister Elenore Sturko, we discussed several needs to take action and work toward in providing education, prevention and harm reduction initiatives for all residents of BC.

CLAC offered to provide mental health first aid training for all the ministers and their staff. After explaining the program and how it can benefit, Minister Sarah Weddell discussed making a plan to have CLAC facilitate this training.

A few other ministers wanted to discuss what CLAC does for its members and how we are working toward creating safer workplaces. I explained that CLAC is becoming a big advocate for bringing awareness to the workplace and how we support our members through various wellness programs and Alcohol and Drug Case Management program.

We want to make mental health safety just as much a priority as physical safety. We all can visually see that a hard hat, steel-toed boots, and high visibility vests make a difference. We are working toward creating conversations and supports so that mental health safety can become just as visible.

Addressing Substance Use and Mental Health

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