BOTTOM LINE CONFERENCE
Workplace mental health. It’s personal
Honourable Donald S. Ethell with CMHA - Calgary
Executive Director Laureen MacNeil
Darryl Hass, VP Health, Safety and Environment Operations for ConocoPhillips Canada
84% of delegates agree they have a better understanding of mental illness
and addiction in the workplace after attending the Calgary conference.
T
he 2014 Bottom Line Conference (BLC) offered a three–
day opportunity for more than 300 people to come
together and listen, learn, network and meet experts in the
addiction and mental health fields.
The conference kicked off with the Leader Luncheon. Here,
His Honour, Col. (Ret’d) the Honourable Donald S. Ethell, OC
OMM AOE MSC CD LLD, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta;
Darryl Hass, VP, Health, Safety and Environment Operations
for ConocoPhillips Canada; Lorne Rubis, Chief People Officer
with ATB Financial; and Michael Bryant, former Attorney
General of Ontario provided a full day of insight into the impact
these two diseases have on society and how workplace
mental health is synonymous with overall well-being.
The second day, a plenary day, included an informative and
well-received presentation on addiction by Dr. Raju Hajela.
This was followed by a live webcast from Vancouver’s BLC
10
where Jan Wong shared her personal experience of workplace
depression. The personal and professional experience of
mental illness and mental health support brought engaging
questions and conversation with the It’s Personal panel. CMHA
- Calgary Region’s Morgan Craig-Broadwith led the audience
in a workshop on making their workplaces psychologically
safe. CTV National correspondent Seamus O’Regan finished
off the day with journalistic insight into post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and the high level of stigmatization that still
exists in the military and throughout Canada. He shared his
own experience with panic attacks and depression for the
first time publicly.
The final day consisted of full and half-day workshops where
delegates engaged in learning practical tools to ta