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By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: The mind doesn’t always listen

Oct 20, 2024 | 6:00 AM

THE NUMBER OF CRIMINAL CASES where mental problems play a part seems to be increasing at a breakneck pace. Shootings attributed to people with a long history of mental issues pervade the daily news cycle. Sometimes inner violence is hidden until a moment in time when a trigger causes a flareup that leads to an outbreak such as the recent rash of random shootings in schools and businesses.

These days there is increasing concern about mental issues in the workplace. How often do we see a person fired from their job and come back with a weapon, opening fire on innocent people, taking the lives of people who had no involvement whatsoever in the incident? Or a student mad at a teacher or fellow student who walks through the halls with an automatic weapon.

How did all this happen? That’s what we ask ourselves as we see these incidents play out. Why didn’t we see this coming? Why? Because often we don’t pay enough attention to the symptoms.

Parents, teachers and supervisors at work often ignore signs of impending problems or don’t see them at all. Supervisors, especially, have to be better trained to deal with employees who are struggling. Too often, this problem is thrust into the hands of a human resources person. What should be happening is that front-line supervisors should be reporting issues to the human resources person, who then does the follow-up.

In promoting a recent webinar on the subject of mental illness in the workplace, Olivia Cicchini, an expert in employment law with Peninsula Employment Services in Ontario, writes that more than 500,000 Canadians lose time at work every week because of mental illness. Her seminar dealt with supporting your staff’s mental health and watching out for signs that early intervention may be necessary. This work is more and more critical as the pressures of daily living create more and more stress. And yet so many companies pay only lip service to the problem. Most don’t have a properly trained human resources person.

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That has to change, people. And it has to change soon. With more people working from home, the need to keep track of potential problems is magnified. Companies have to do a better job. Governments have to do a better job. You and I have to do a better job. It’s part of an overall team attitude that is more and more vital to develop as one arm of a program to keep us healthy. It can’t come soon enough.

I’m Doug Collins. And that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.