Many public service workers rush towards emergencies. Why do we abandon them when their courage causes them mental harm?By Wendy Lee, Local 575, InSolidarity CommitteeViolence. Extreme distress. Catastrophic injuries and wounds. For many front-line workers, these are an inevitable part of the job, taking an inevitable toll on their mental health.And yet, only a few front-line workers get the health care and support they will inevitably need. For most others on the dangerous front lines, the situation is even worse – their mental injuries remain unacknowledged and untreated.They sacrifice themselves for their work, and when they get broken by their work, they’re left to pick up the pieces on their own.It’s a glaring and profoundly unjust gap, but far from impossible to close. To do just that, the members of the OPSEU/SEFPO Health Care Divisional Council (HCDC) are hard at work. They are proposing a campaign with other health care activists to expand proper mental health care for all those who run to emergencies.
Success is totally achievable – we’ve succeeded here before.
In 2016, OPSEU/SEFPO and other unions worked with NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo to force the government to make it easier for workers (including those in correctional facilities and paramedic services) to get treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).In the law called
Supporting Ontario’s First Responders Act (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), government ordered the Worker Safety Insurance Board to presume that, for certain workers, their work is a significant contributor to PTSD.
Gaps to be filled
Why only some workers?
The list of workers covered by the law, which is sometimes referred to as “presumptive legislation,” is severely and incoherently limited in Ontario.For example, why are paramedics covered because of their close contact with a person mangled in a car accident, but not all of those who take over care once the crash patient is wheeled into hospital?
Show/hide chart list of jobs covered in Section 14.2 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act:
- Full-time firefighters
- Part-time firefighters
- Volunteer firefighters
- Fire investigators
- Police officers
- Members of an emergency response team
- Paramedics
- Emergency medical attendants
- Ambulance service managers
- Workers in a correctional institution
- Workers in a place of secure custody or place of secure temporary detention
- Workers involved in dispatch
- Members of the College of Nurses of Ontario who directly provide patient care and who are not workers described in paragraph 10 or 11
- Provincial bailiffs appointed under the Ministry of Correctional Services Act
- Probation officers appointed under or in accordance with the Ministry of Correctional Services Act or the Child and Family Services Act
- Workers who directly supervise workers described in paragraph 15
- Special constables
- Members of a police service who perform work in a forensic identification unit or a Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System unit of the police service
- Wildland firefighters
- Wildland fire investigators
Why only some mental injuries?
Another significant gap: why is only PTSD covered?Depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and compassion fatigue are just some of possible mental injuries workers can suffer because of the high-stakes intensity of their work.
Why is Ontario lagging so far behind?
There is hope for us in Ontario based on progressive stance that other provinces in Canada have adopted.Newfoundland has legislation which covers all workers.Saskatchewan has legislation which covers all workers and doesn’t limit the presumption to PTSD.If you’re interested in learning more and lending your support to the idea of expanding and improving Ontario’s presumptive legislation, please reach out to Health Care Divisional Council member Joel Usher at
[email protected].
