PILOT
What is psychological health and safety?
Psychological health and safety (PHS) at work goes beyond protecting workers from harm, it’s about preventing harm in the first place. It means recognizing hazards and reducing risks that could cause unsafe levels of stress or that could cause illness or harm to a worker and taking action before harm occurs. PHS means making sure people feel mentally and emotionally safe at work. Check out our definitions section for more on PHS terms.
Why is it important to protect and support psychological health and safety?
Learning more about PHS and having easy-to-use resources, such as the tools in this kit, helps everyone build safer and healthier workplaces.
When PHS is strong, people feel:
Valued – their work and ideas matter
Respected – treated fairly and listened to
Safe to speak up – can share concerns without fear
Less stressed – able to manage challenges at work
Supported – help is available when needed
Included – part of the team and workplace decisions
Confident – able to do their best work
Motivated – encouraged to keep learning and improving
How do I use the toolkit?
During the pilot, we will be working directly with joint occupational health and safety committees (JOHSCs) in healthcare across B.C. The pilot will include several phases.
The first phase runs until March 31, 2026.
Some information on the PHS Toolkit for JOHSCs will be available to everyone in our Get Started section. The other two sections, Take Action and Resources, are password-protected and for pilot participants only.
If your committee would like to participate, click here.
Pilot participants are encouraged to pick a few sections from each of the three tabs in the toolkit to test and provide input on.
Get Started gives committee members a basic understanding of psychological health and safety (PHS) at work. It includes plain language definitions, the CSA Standard for Psychological Health and Safety, and the role JOHSCs play in protecting and supporting PHS.
Take Action offers a JOHSC Check-In Tool to help committees better understand their PHS starting point. It also includes discussion guides for the psychological factors that influence PHS in the workplace.
Resources provides downloadable PHS tools to share at committee meetings and in health workplaces in B.C.