Mental Health Week: Celebrating our Organizational Development and Wellness Team
Overall health and wellness of our staff is a priority at St. Mary's. As we celebrate Mental Health Week this week, we are highlighting a team who leads many initiatives central to this: the Organizational Development and Wellness team (ODW).
This team is responsible for a number of priorities and activities that take place around the hospital, each as important as the next. Almost everything this team does relates back to mental health, whether that is directly or indirectly, but maintaining a focus on the mental health strategy is especially important for the team.
Heather, Wellness Coordinator, focuses on creating and executing engaging events and initiatives for staff to take part in. For Heather, it is about creating joy in the workplace and spreading that joy.
"While I was still in school, prior to joining St. Mary's, I was interested in pursuing a career in teaching and education," says Heather. "The topic of mental health came up and I learned about all of the different resources that are available for people to access and you realize, as you grow up, that there is so much out there that people don't know about. I really enjoy planning and supporting people - it is something I am extremely passionate about, so when this job came up it felt like the right fit."
The next member of the team is Kathleen, Organizational Development and Wellness Specialist. Kathleen focuses on program development, making resources, services and programs available and accessible for all staff across the hospital. For Kathleen, it is about being able to meet staff where they are at and being able to offer different ideas or directing staff to appropriate resources.
"My background is in social work, and I think that is important to mention as it is the lens that I operate through when looking at resources to onboard or programs to develop for staff support, whether that is individual or team support," says Kathleen. "I originally started at St. Mary's in the Emergency Department (ED), with a passion for program building and development. I wanted to be a resource for that team, pull resources closer to them and help develop their lives while at work to make it easier for them. When the opportunity came up with the ODW team, I saw it as an opportunity to expand and bring resources closer to all staff."
To round out the team is Lesley, Organizational Development Consultant, who focuses on leading the strategic priorities for the team, collaborating on leadership development opportunities, looking at education, diversity, mental health, and wellness programs. Lesley is also responsible for reporting on the status of priorities back to the leadership team as it relates to the strategic plan.
"Based on personal experiences, I recognized the importance of quality healthcare, and how important it is for the staff providing that care to have, in a way, quality care provided to them," says Lesley. "I knew that I wanted to work in the healthcare field, and for me, there was no better way than to serve those that provide that frontline care."
For the ODW team, the work they do comes back to one central theme: taking what they hear and learn from staff and looking at ways that they can then enhance the workplace and make programs and services accessible to meet those needs. "We want to make sure that whatever we are hearing from staff, we are continually adapting and acting on that to provide the right resources at the right time for them," says Kathleen.
When asked what program, service, or activity they are each most proud of, both Kathleen and Lesley quickly thought of the Care Cart. The Care Cart was a program launched in May 2021 that sees treats like bags of chips and chocolate bars brought to different departments each week.
"When we first launched it, we weren't sure what to expect, but it quickly saw a tremendous response and realized that we couldn't stop doing it," says Lesley. "To see the joy that it brings staff, and how something so small can go such a long way is truly exceptional."
"The Care Cart has become something more than we first imagined it could be," says Kathleen. "It is now used as a communication tool and conversation starter. We have members of the Senior Leadership Team, safety committee, managers and even the CEO taking it out and interacting with staff on the floors. It is truly a symbol of what we are trying to do as a whole."
Creating and promoting a work environment that is inclusive and makes staff feel that they belong is extremely important for this team. "We don't want to just be reactive to situations that arise, we really want to be responsive and proactive for staff," says Lesley.
"A lot of what we do comes from embodying the mission, vision, values as a team and as a hospital," says the team. "It is really meaningful for us to get feedback from staff that lets us know we are able to support them with the work we do. We recognize the way we carry ourselves and the work we do truly makes a difference in workplace culture."
The pandemic in particular has had a negative impact on mental health for many individuals making it more important than ever to keep the conversation going. Talking about mental health and bringing awareness of programs and services that staff can access is one way that the team is trying to build, create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace for everyone.
This year's theme for mental health week is empathy. Empathy can be shown in many ways: tuning into one another, trying to understand how someone feels, choosing not to judge or seeing the world as others do. "Empathy isn't always the easiest topic to discuss or even highlight, but I think for this team it comes back to embodying being an advocate for staff - reminding them of their importance and purpose, connecting them to their why and bringing that back into their workplace," says Lesley.
The ODW team has led many new initiatives over the past year in particular that they are especially proud of such as:
- The Scoop on Wellness - the Intranet page where staff can go to find updates about programs and resources.
- Pink Badge Tags - these are tags that can be added to hospital badges with free mental health resources for staff to access. This was a joint collaboration between the ODW team and the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
- Mental Health Action Team - this team was developed to expand the reach of mental health resources across the hospital. It is an effort to safeguard the mental health of our teams with individuals that are closer to the units. This team consists of about 30 people with a special interest in mental health and supporting the mental health of staff.
- Therapy Dog Program
For Heather, bringing Therapy Dogs back to St. Mary's was particularly memorable. "You could see, in the moment, the impact it was making and how peoples' days were being brightened. In fact, the hosts of the program mentioned that the group of individuals from St. Mary's were some of the liveliest, engaged and kind people that they had worked with for this type of program."
This team often recites and lives by the motto: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." This is not only how they look at the work they do with each other, but also about the work they do with each and every team at St. Mary's.
Thank you, ODW team, for everything that you do for staff here at St. Mary's. The work you do is creating an environment for staff to provide exceptional care to our patients and community. If you happen to see Lesley, Heather, or Kathleen in the halls, please take a moment to thank them for all that they do here at St. Mary's.
Heather, Lesley and Kathleen