MANAGING EMPLOYEES WITH DISABILITIES

Developing an effective return-to-work process
Douglas Kube

Identifying and managing mental health in the workplace
Diana Capponi

Undue hardship: Determining when enough is enough
Peter L. Biro

Absence & disability management
Julie Fish

Managing disabilities in a unionized setting
Christine Delaney

Dealing with workplace stress and mental health issues: live well, laugh lots – A crash course in building a healthy workday
Susan Stewart

Julie Fish is a Principal at Morneau Sobeco's Toronto Office, responsible for leading the Absence and Disability Management Practice in Ontario. Prior to joining Morneau Sobeco, Julie was an Assistant Vice-President for one of Canada's leading insurers, where she led the Toronto and Windsor Life and Disability Operations as well as the National Litigation Team. She was also responsible for leading the Toronto disability operation at another leading insurer for a number of years. With 15-years' experience in the area of absence and disability management, she has extensive knowledge of leading edge and best practices in the industry. In addition to the above, her expertise lies in several areas, including implementing new business, working with union groups and formulating the best disability plan options for various industries.

Rochelle Morandini is national project leader for organizational health for Hewitt Associates in Canada. She has thirteen years of consulting experience in the organizational health field. Her strengths lie in the areas of strategic business and process development that promote health and productivity, strengthen workplace relationships and enhance performance. Rochelle has worked with a number of both public and private sector employers. Rochelle has also designed, developed and delivered extensive training programs and post-secondary course curricula related to disability management, case management, as well as business management practices to human resource practitioners, rehabilitation professionals and occupational health nurses and physicians. Rochelle also founded a multidisciplinary networking group, called Disability Management (D.M.) LINKS, to help facilitate the sharing of knowledge and promote leading-edge strategies throughout the disability management community. One of Rochelle's recent initiatives has been to develop Hewitt's Disability Absence Index Survey. It establishes benchmark data on disability absence, provides an understanding of how Canadian organizations are tracking disability absence and offers a high-level perspective as to how absence is being managed. The survey may be used by participants as a tool to evaluate their programs annually.

As a Director in the Human Resources department at Purolator Courier, Douglas holds responsibility for the company's healthy workplace and employee engagement strategy. He has over 17 years experience in the private sector working with leading companies in the transportation, pharmaceutical, chemical and aerospace sectors. He is a Fellow with LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International.

Christine Delaney is the Manager of Health, Wellness and Safety at the Peel District School Board. She manages a multi-disciplinary team that is responsible for health and safety, disability management, WSIB claims management, the Employee Assistance Program, attendance management and organizational health and wellness. Christine is responsible for creating a disability management program and a WSIB claims management program that has the support of eleven employee groups and has produced significant savings for the PDSB. In addition, she created and manages the health and wellness program at the Board. The Peel District School Board is proud to be the first school board in Canada to be awarded Level 2 Healthy Workplace Certification from the National Quality Institute. Christine has worked at the Peel District School Board and other public sector organizations for 35 years.

Peter Biro's practice Goodman Carr LLP includes all aspects of civil, corporate and commercial litigation. Peter is the head of the firm's employment law practice referred to as the Human Resources Management Group ("HRMG"). The Group provides labour and employment advice and offers guidance on positive pro-active employee relations and assists and represents clients in all manner of human rights, privacy, sexual harassment workers' compensation, occupational health and safety and employment termination issues. The HRMG also advises on employment agreements and employee and policy handbooks. Peter has chaired conferences, spoken and taught and has published extensively in the fields of debtor-creditor law, enforcement of foreign judgements, labour and employment law, workers' compensation, environmental law, constitutional issues, civil litigation and legal theory. Peter also appears frequently on television, radio and in other media to comment on news stories of special interest and on developments in the law.

Diana Capponi is Employment Co-ordinator at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is a former client of both mental health and addiction services. She has been at the forefront of the consumer\survivor movement in Ontario, with a particular focus on economic and employment opportunities for people with mental health and addiction issues. She is a skilled public speaker and a recipient of a wide variety of awards presented to her for her work with the consumer\survivor community. Diana is the past Executive Director of the Ontario Council of Alternative Businesses, a unique provincial organization committed to the provision of employment through the development of Alternative Businesses. Approximately 1,000 former clients, all told they could never work, currently run these businesses entirely on their own. Through her 14 years of work at the Council and her experience operating Fresh Start Cleaning, a Toronto-based janitorial service, Diana learned first hand the importance of employment to one's mental health. Diana recently took her passion for employment to the Human Resources Department of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Here her skills assist the Centre achieve its goal of having people with personal histories of mental health and\or addiction issues employed within a wide cross section of positions.

How Susan's wellness workshops came into existence was somewhat by accident. In June of 2004, Susan was asked to write and facilitate a humour workshop for the Ministry of Citizenship & Immigration's All Staff Day and that went very well. The following year, Susan was asked to do a follow-up wellness workshop for MCI's 2005 All Staff Day and that went very well too. Since then, Susan has been touring both of her workshops, Live Well, Laugh Lots & The Power of Play to ministries all across the OPS to deliver her messages of work-life balance, health and humour.

Delivering workshops isn't Susan's only service, she is also a popular speaker and event host. Susan has hosted awards ceremonies for the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, 2005 OPS HR Awards and is now preparing to MC the 2006 Learning Conference for TOPS (Tomorrow's OPS).

Susan is now also a speaker/trainer with FGIWorld - an employee assistance provider for many government ministries and private companies.

Past clients of Susan Stewart: Ontario Place/ Ministry of Transportation/ Ministry of Finance/ Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities/Ministry of Consumer and Business Services/ Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services/ 2004 & 2005 OPS REACH Conference/ INCO Ltd.