Canadian Safety Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 serve," Flynn said. "They're the people who put their lives, on a daily basis, on the line for us, and we owe it to them." That would include legisla- tive changes, expected to be an- nounced soon at Queen's Park. While details are forthcoming, Flynn said awareness is key to prevention and reducing stigma attached to PTSD. The aware- ness campaign would include an online resource toolkit for first responders and employers, research grants, and an annual leadership summit hosted by the labour minister. "What we need to do is ensure that we have protections in place that not only treat those people who have contracted PTSD but also ensure we have a system in place to make sure that we pre- vent people from getting PTSD in the first place," Flynn added in the announcement. Living with PTSD According to the Ontario labour ministry, first responders are at least twice as likely as the general population to suffer from PTSD due to the amount of stressful situations they face in the course of their work. Rusk, who is currently a police sergeant in Owen Sound, Ont., and executive director at Badge of Life Canada — a resource for police with operational stress in- juries — said the accumulation of trauma on the job is a major fac- tor in the increased likelihood of PTSD sufferers. "The accumulation of trauma is what is really killing us…po- lice officers arriving at the same traumatic event as the public, that may have been the tenth traumatic event that day that they've responded to, and in the course of a 10- to 12-hour shift, working a bunch of days in a row — I can tell you, you can be running from one traumatic incident that is very horrible, to the next — and the next might be worse than the one you were already at," he said. Rusk, whose wife is a retired cop who also suffers from PTSD, said common symptoms include severe anxiety and depression, as well as night terrors. For police especially, the stigma attached to operational stress injuries is harsh. "In a police culture especially, you look very weak and you could be ridiculed and looked down upon by your superiors and your co-workers because they feel you're not cut out for the job," he said, adding that work is only half the battle. "So you have a house that has not just one person that suffers on a daily basis but you have two, and we have to live together and we have to manage that. We have four children, it's a balancing act to be able to self care and self manage your own stuff, and then your children's stuff." Manitoba leads the way for legislative changes Should the legislation pass, On- tario will follow the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick in enacting legislation dealing with PTSD. This year Manitoba became the first province to recognize PTSD for all occupations, effec- tively allowing all employees to be able to make a claim for PTSD and mental injury under work- ers' compensation, as well as pre- suming the illness to be a work- related illness. William Gardner, a labour and workers' compensation lawyer in Winnipeg and chair of the Manitoba Employers Council, said there were concerns over the presumption provision. "We didn't think a presump- tion really made any sense in the case of PTSD," he said. "With PTSD, it has to be a traumatic event which tends to be fairly recognizable, you know, some- one gets killed or injured in front of you. Its symptoms must arise in a finite amount of time, so it didn't seem to make any sense." That differs from the circum- stances a firefighter, he said, who might suffer from a certain form of cancer that would take a long time to manifest, and for which it would be difficult to pinpoint the source or cause but could be the result of hazards faced while on the job. Such cases, therefore, would be better suited to a pre- sumption provision rather rather than PTSD, Gardner said. He added that legislative changes might have the opposite effect, and see doctors relying on that diagnosis. "We were worried because mental illness is notoriously dif- ficult to diagnose, and incorrect diagnoses are endemic. We were afraid that if you had a presump- tion in the legislation regard- ing the workers compensation board, it would encourage phy- sicians, who naturally are con- cerned about the welfare of their patients, to default into a PTSD diagnosis, where such PTSD di- agnosis might not be appropri- ate." under the act three times: when she complained to the manager the night the confrontation took place; when she complained to Ceppetelli and requested a copy of Slainte's workplace ha- rassment and violence policy; and her formal complaint to the Ministry of Labour. The board then found that by not scheduling Thompson to work any shifts following her complaint and request for the policy, Slainte and its owner were acting in reprisal for her raising these issues. Neither the restaurant nor Ceppetelli provided any expla- nation or justification for their failure to give Thompson any more shifts to work, and the act placed the onus on the employer to prove the conduct that the employee complained of didn't occur or wasn't related to the employee's attempt to exercise her rights. Without any evidence to the contrary, the board found Slainte's failure to schedule Thompson for further shifts di- rectly because of her health and safety complaints. The normal remedy that has been established for a reprisal in contravention of the act is rein- statement, but Thompson made it clear she didn't want to return to work at the restaurant and the board agreed, given the man- ner in which her employment ended. In place of reinstatement, the board found Thompson was entitled to damages for loss of employment in addition to lost wages. Thompson found a new job with similar pay 10 weeks after the termination of her employ- ment with Slainte, so it found she was entitled to 10 weeks' pay as compensation for her loss of employment. She was entitled to the same amount of damages for lost wages, so in total the restau- rant was ordered to pay Thomp- son $7,437.16 within 30 days of the decision. For more information see: • Thompson v. 580062 Ontario Inc., 2015 CarswellOnt 17923 (Ont. Lab. Rel. Bd.). Stigma attached to PTSD in police culture Lack of shifts following complaint was a reprisal News | March 2016 | CSR Ontario < pg. 1 No more shifts < pg. 5 According to the Ontario labour ministry, first responders are at least twice as likely as the general population to suffer from PTSD

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