Health Unit Receives Excellence Canada’s Gold Award for Mental Health in the Workplace

Brockville – On November 17, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit representatives accepted the Excellence Canada’s Mental Health at Work Gold award at the 2023 Performance Excellence Summit in Toronto. The Canada Awards for Excellence is an annual awards program established in 1984 that recognizes outstanding achievements by organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors coast-to-coast across Canada.

“This award is a testament to the collective effort, dedication and commitment of every individual in our organization that values and promotes a culture of mental health and well-being,” said Shani Gates, Health Unit Director of Quality, Information and People Services and executive sponsor of the mental health and well-being program. “I would like to thank all of our mental health at work champions and our leadership team for supporting our wellness initiatives and creating a workplace environment where mental health and well-being is a priority.”

In fall 2021 the Health Unit’s Strategic Leadership Team adopted Excellence Canada’s Mental Health at Work Program as a strategic framework to improve the psychological health and safety of the workplace environment and contribute to personal mental health and well-being amongst all our employees. In March 2023, a verification process was completed with Excellence Canada, and the Health Unit met the requirements of the Gold certification level of Excellence Canada’s Mental Health at Work program.

This award is the first milestone in the Health Unit’s journey to create a workplace environment where all employees feel safe, supported and cared for.

“Congratulations to everyone at the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit,” says Dr. Linna Li, Medical Officer of Health and CEO for the organization. “This is an important strategic initiative as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on the mental health, well-being and resiliency of our employees into the future.”

For information about the Health Unit, please visit www.healthunit.org or call 1-800-660-5853. Important public health updates are also available by connecting with @LGLHealthUnit on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and @lglhealthunit.z on Instagram.