Open for business: Disability Management Centre
[caption id="attachment_19683" align="alignnone" width="591"] Mark Miller, UNDE; Glenn MacDougall, Acting DGWM; Nicole Schaaf, Office of Disability Management, and Capt(N) Jason Boyd cut the ribbon marking the regional office of Disability Management opening. Photo by Peter Mallett[/caption]Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~A new disability management centre opened for business in Esquimalt last Friday with a mandate to provide improved case management services for ill, injured and impaired DND civilian employees.Glenn MacDougall, the Acting Director General of Workplace Management (DGWM), representing Assistant Deputy Minister Human Resources Civilian, presided over the opening ceremony for of the new regional Office of Disability Management on Oct. 19. Located in Naden, the new centre is operated by the civilian human resources branch of the Department of National Defence and is a key component of DND’s Total Health and Wellness Strategy. It offers support services including work and non-work-related accidents, injuries, illness or impairment; and recovery, return to work, accommodation and medical retirement.MacDougall said the opening of the new centre supports Canada’s Defence Policy: Strong, Secure, Engaged, and its objective to sustain a healthy, respectful and safe workplace. He emphasized that the Office of Disability Management will tackle the stigma surrounding mental health-related illnesses. “We have to continue to build programs that support employees and managers, provide easily accessible tools and above all, create a culture that promotes employee health and wellbeing,” he said. “Taking care of our mental health is just as important, but we’re not as good as we need to be at recognizing what that looks like, especially in the workplace.”The regional Office of Disability Management employs four full-time case workers who are supported by a national team at multiple centres across the country. They will initially serve CFB Esquimalt but will eventually expand operations by the end of the fiscal year to include Vancouver Island and...