SAFETY AND HEALTH MESSAGE EXTENDS BEYOND THE WORKPLACE
Safety & Health Week, May 1 - 7, 2022
Preventing injury and illness in the workplace, at home and in the community is the focus of Safety and Health Week across Canada, May 1 to 7.
In Saskatchewan, Safety and Health Week is being presented by the Saskatchewan chapters of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and Worksafe Saskatchewan. This year's signature event is a virtual presentation on May 3 that brings together health and safety professionals from around the province.
“The focus of this week is health and safety, but it's not just in the workplace,” says event director Chantel de la Sablonniere. “The idea is to actually bring (attention to) all the aspects of health and safety and that includes the psychological aspects — the risks involved in all our daily activities.”
Safety leadership will be in the spotlight during the virtual presentation. Guest speaker and longtime occupational therapist Sylvia Marusyk will address the topic of safety leadership and how stress can lead to risky behavior, making people act in a manner less safe than they should.
De la Sablonniere says Marusyk has become known as an “activational” rather than just a motivational speaker.
“As an activational speaker she wants to provide an action plan. So she is not just talking at you but wants to engage you in deciding what are the next steps and how can you implement the information that she's sharing. So I think this topic is really, really great.”
Worksafe Saskatchewan will also present the winners of the annual Youth Video Contest during the virtual event and share some of their videos.
Manyof the people attending the event are employed in safety positions at businesses, organizations or the public sector — which is timely as more people return to their traditional workplaces as the pandemic eases.
“This is really relevant, coming back into the workplace,” she says. “We all need that reminder as we're all coming together again in this new normal. So it's a good opportunity to keep a focus on Safety and Health Week.”
The intent is to have people thinking about safety and health all year round, says de la Sablonniere, who is employed in the field of psychological health and wellness.
“I think it's important that we understand what we do for ourselves to stay healthy includes our mind and also being safe and protecting each other.”
She says whether it's looking out for co-workers or avoiding distractions and being safe while driving, we may sometimes forget that the things we do can impact others.
“So I think having this Safety and Health Week is really able to focus on everybody coming home safely.”
De la Sablonniere says an injury or illness can have an impact on a person both emotionally and economically, whether it occurs at work or at home.
“You'll to take time off from things like your children, your social life. So it's hard physiologically to get back at things. It's depressing to not be able to do things like you were before, especially if it's a serious injury,” she says.
“You don't want to have that split second happen that could cost you a lot, including your life.”