Happy New Year! We send a special holiday greeting to everyone working in healthcare during this festive season. At SWITCH BC, we remind ourselves daily that health workers are at the heart of our actions and intentions. Your skilled care, compassion, sacrifices, and efforts drive everything we do. 

In 2026, a top priority is violence prevention for health workers. Verbal and physical abuse should never be part of the job. Yet, we know health workers face them too often. We cannot ignore violence. We updated the Provincial Violence Prevention Curriculum eLearning course and it is available to all health authority workers in February. While we know violence is a society and system issue, we are taking steps to manage challenging people and situations together. Our Community Physician Health and Safety program has also developed violence prevention de-escalation tools, like the HEARD+D method, to support difficult conversations.  

This year, we will be adding more tools to our Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) program for Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees (JOHSC). We hear from health workers that workplace psychological health and safety are major concerns. JOHSCs play a critical role in this area. By bringing management and worker representatives together, JOHSCs can improve the culture of health and safety for all. The toolkit will include quick and easy ways to integrate PHS into committee work and can help health leaders spark discussions throughout the system. 

We are also expanding and improving the OHS Resource Centre – a JOHSC meeting management platform. It’s now available at PHC, VCH, island and interior. Approximately 2,500 committee members are using the OHS Resource Centre. And it is coming soon to FH, PHSA, and Northern Health. Plus, we are adding metrics to bring immediate awareness of health and safety issues to committees and employers.  

My hope for 2026 is that health workers continue to share their health and safety priorities with us. That we can continue to work closely with our Board partners: health unions, employers, and physicians to improve occupational health and safety.  

We know there is a great deal of work ahead of us, and we also know when we ground ourselves in the “why of the work” we bring our best efforts every day. 

Victoria Schmid
SWITCH BC, CEO