Manitoba legislation recognizes PTSD as work-related condition
CBC Radio | Posted: December 30, 2015 1:10 PM | Last Updated: December 30, 2015
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that will affect roughly one in ten Canadians at some point in their lives.
And society is increasingly attuned to the fact that certain professions – from soldiers to police and other first responders – are especially susceptible.
But there's also growing understanding that other lines of work – even if they don't feature such singular traumatic events as the ones we just heard – can also lead to PTSD.
New legislation coming into effect in Manitoba on January 1st seeks to recognize that – and to give workers in all occupations covered by the Workers Compensation Board better access to PTSD care.
For the first time ever, it will be presumed that PTSD is workplace related, unless proven otherwise.
- Michelle Gawronsky is the head of Manitoba's Government and General Employees' Union. She was in our Winnipeg studio.
- Elliot Sims is the Provincial Affairs Director for Manitoba at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. He was in Sandy Lake, Manitoba.
- Dr. Margaret McKinnon is an associate professor of psychiatry at McMaster University, and a psychologist at St Joseph`s Healthcare in Hamilton.
This segment was produced by The Current's Sujata Berry and Leif Zapf-Gilje.
PTSD may be common among soldiers and emergency workers, but it can affect anyone exposed to traumatic situations...including journalists sent to cover high-profile conflicts and natural disasters.
That's what happened to CBC's Curt Petrovich. In 2013, he was sent to the Philippines to cover typhoon Haiyan - a deadly tropical cyclone that killed thousands of people. And while he was there, he witnessed first-hand death and devastation. It affected him more than he realized, and Curt talked about his experience on the CBC podcast Backstory.