Did you know BCLC has an employee-led Mental Health Committee dedicated to raising awareness and encouraging conversations about mental health?
The Mental Health Committee has more than 40 members who are steadfast Mental Health Ambassadors. With the upcoming Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Mental Health Week, from May 3rd to 9th, BCLC asked a few of them to #GetReal and share their experiences as well as the importance of having open conversations at work about mental health and available resources.
"Our Mental Health Ambassadors are passionate about raising awareness of mental health resources among employees, such as Not Myself Today, which can be vital to prevention and help employees start a conversation about the topic in the workplace," said Ashley Porter, Customer Support Agent and Mental Health Ambassador at BCLC.
BCLC’s Mental Health Committee will be raising awareness of CMHA’s Mental Health Week among employees to promote behaviours and attitudes that foster well-being, support good mental health and create a culture of understanding and acceptance.
"People think admitting that you have mental health issues could be perceived as being weak,” says Jody Gelowitz, Senior Programmer Analyst and a Mental Health Ambassador. “I realized though that being around others who are healing from mental health issues, talking about it, and being more transparent shows way more strength and courage than trying to deal with it in silence. The unspoken thoughts that are in our heads tend to be bigger than reality."
To continually encourage conversations about mental health at BCLC, Mental Health Ambassadors publish internal articles to raise awareness and remind employees of the resources available to them and also spearhead fun activities – like virtual Christmas carolling and scavenger hunts – to uplift the work environment.
"It makes me proud to work for an organization that values people over profit (...) that invests in education and understands the need of sharing stories that make a difference for people to understand more about mental health,” says Shari Finlay, Team Leader Corporate Services and a Mental Health Ambassador. “We all have ups and downs, but if we don't talk about both of them, we don't get better."
BCLC has a Mental Health Ambassador in almost every department to encourage conversations and raise awareness of the support available to employees. After all, there’s no health without mental health.
