Meeting Your Duty to Accommodate
Best Practices for Your Accommodation, Return-to-Work, and Disability Management Programs
Conference: August 19 and 20, 2008
Optional Workshop: August 21, 2008
Calgary, Alberta
Conference Program Agenda - Day One
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
| 8:30 - 9:00 |
Registration and Continental Breakfast |
8:30 - 9:00 |
9:00 - 9:15
Welcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
9:15 - 10:15
Legal Update and Emerging Issues and Their Applications to Practice
Joyce Mitchell, Partner, McLennan Ross LLP
- Updates and developments on recent cases, arbitration rules, and jurisprudence
- Mandatory retirement
- What are the most important developments and how do they impact your daily work?
- Deemed termination clauses and the duty to accommodate
- Employers' and employees' obligations: challenging the myth that accommodation is solely
the responsibility of employers
- Ensure that proactive attitudes towards duty to accommodate and related issues remain at the
forefront of human resources concerns
| 10:15 - 10:30 |
Networking Break |
10:15 - 10:30 |
10:30 - 11:30
Message from the Mental Health Commission of Canada
Dr. Ian Arnold, Workforce Advisory Committee, Mental Health Commission of Canada
The presentation will review the history of the Mental Health Commission of
Canada and its mandate.
- Three key initiatives, which are the core of the Commission?s program of action:
- Facilitating the development of a national mental health strategy
- Uundertaking a 10-year anti-stigma and anti-discrimination campaign
- Building a national Knowledge Exchange Centre
- Workplan for the Workforce Advisory Committee, and how this workplan addresses the three
key initiatives
11:30 - 12:30
Accommodating Mental Health Issues in the Workplace: Identifying a Hidden
Disability and the Scope of Your Responsibility
Liz R. Scott, Principal, Organizational Solutions
- What constitutes a mental health-related disability and how you can recognize the signs
- Why it is imperative to deal with mental-health in the workplace
- Mental health issues that may be triggered by stress, anxiety, depression, or a physical condition
- Accommodation strategies that work
- Why an employee might deny their need for accommodation and how to address this
| 12:30 - 1:30 |
Luncheon Break |
12:30 - 1:30 |
1:30 - 2:30
Accommodating Mental Health Issues in the Workplace II: Strategies and Solutions
Pat Ferris, Calgary Psychology Group
- Moving away from applying a physical injury template: setting up a model specifically
tailored for mental health issues
- Developing solutions, policies, and procedures that reduce emotional illness and increase
well-being
- When employees are off: fostering recovery and return to work
- How your organization should change its processes when dealing with an employee with mental
health issues
- Proactive tools for accommodating mental health issues including early intervention techniques
- Integrating employees back into the workplace after mental health leave and addressing
psychological barriers before they manifest as problems
- Methods for assessing and measuring cognitive abilities
2:30 - 3:30
Clarifying Misconceptions of "Undue Hardship"
William J. Armstrong, QC, Laird Armstrong
- How far legislation requires an employer to accommodate an employee
- What do you do when you can't accommodate someone?
- Do you need to create a job for them?
- Dealing with recurrences: How many last chances does an employee get?
- Determining at which point undue hardship is reached
- Continuing impact of Honda v. Keays and the appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
| 3:30 - 3:45 |
Networking Break |
3:30 - 3:45 |
3:45 - 4:45
Developing Win-Win Return-to-Work (RTW) and Accommodation Plans
Carol Laisnez, Principal Dynamic Insight
- Best practices for coordinating the whole organization to work together on accommodation
and proactive return-to-work plans
- Importance of communications to make the employee feel supported throughout the process
- Strategies to keep the employee connected to work in a positive way
- Effective strategies for employees during their return to productivity, including work-load
related restrictions
- Motivating managers to support and encourage employees when returning to their pre-injury
duties
- Case study examples of successful practices for adapting your current RTW programs to ensure
a smooth transition for employees returning from psychological illnesses or addictions
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