Mental Health

Covid-19 has disrupted all workplaces with constantly changing procedures and government restrictions, no doubt adding more stress to people’s lives. With this, mental health and self-care has become a more prominent part of our lives.
At our most recent professional development day, we were asked to present on the Enneagram and it was well-received because it shows you how to better understand yourself, deal with your emotions, and how to take care of your mental health.
The Enneagram is a personality typing system that puts people into one of nine types. Unlike many personality systems it focuses on the motivations of a person—rather than their behaviours—and by looking at that we can learn why we do what we do and we can understand why others do what they do. Based on your type it provides you with insight into your strengths and also personal challenges that you might deal with day to day. The Enneagram looks at how you behave when you’re stressed and when you’re in a healthy state of mind. This is beneficial to the workplace because understanding that everyone has different motivations can help you navigate different working styles, prevent conflict, and strengthen team morale. On a personal level, it provides self-awareness, teaches you when to take a break in order to avoid work-related burnout, and show you what strengths you can bring to the workplace.
During our session we will give a brief overview of the nine types in the Enneagram and will show you how to identify when you’re going into stress. We will also be providing ways to manage that.
If you're planning to attend this session it's recommended that you do the Enneagram personality test in advance. We recommend the truity test at this link: https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test-eml. It will prompt you to pay for your full results, but there no need as we will explain each type in depth during our presentation.

Explore the experience and impacts of remote professional development conversations undertaken by Greater Victoria Public Library librarians during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how GVPL librarians used assigned learning topics and workshops to structure conversations that led to improved communication, connection, morale, and mental wellness. As well, find out how we’re applying these lessons to the post-pandemic future, using the improved communication, system-wide knowledge sharing, and sense of internal community to explore future-focused topics and expand librarians' professional skills.

Beyond addressing basic literacy skills, many libraries are teaching financial, digital, and physical literacy, as well as offering medical, legal, and mental health services, in an effort to meet the needs of the whole person, during the entire lifespan. Barring a few exceptions, most services are free. This is a daunting, complex undertaking. Some argue we should "stay in our lane" and others are cursing the "vocational awe" that leads us to try to be all things to all people. We are burning out in rapid numbers. Meanwhile, as mounting fears and realities around climate change, pandemics, economic recession, and political corruption overwhelm our citizens they are increasingly turning to their libraries for information, shelter, and support. This talk will address those concerns and show how we can lead with compassion. It will argue that the proven solution to keeping librarians sane and service needs met during these turbulent times is by first taking care of ourselves, and then forming partnerships between outside non-profit organizations, government, local businesses, and citizens. More importantly, we will discuss positive steps we can take towards healing, while also acknowledging the grief, trauma, and guilt librarians experience every day on the front lines.

Stress is becoming a norm and can lead to serious health issues. Library workers are overwhelmed. What role should the library play in ensuring employee wellness? One in five people struggle and mental health is a leading cause of workplace disability in Canada. As a champion for mental health, in 2014 Pickering Public Library (PPL) became early adopters of the voluntary National Standard for Workplace Psychological Health & Safety CSA-Z1003-13. PPL will share their best practices to implement a psychological health and safety system for employees in your library. This session will also share the results of a recent national research case study in which PPL was a participant organization. This session will be of interest to any library employee, especially library leaders, joint health & safety committee members, and staff with human resources or supervisory responsibilities. There will be an audience question period near the end of the session for added interactivity.
Learning objectives:

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Share experiences as it relates to mental health in the workplace.

2. Examine and obtain a tool kit of practical resources that can be utilized to help their library implement a psychologically healthy and safe workplace.

3. Identify and develop strategies that are suited to their individual workplaces.

Speaker: Tanya Sinclair, Pickering Public Library

Biography:

Tanya Sinclair is the CEO at Pickering Public Library. She has over a decade of experience working in libraries, combined with 20 years in the Human Resources field. Tanya is passionate about learning and is always looking for news ways to engage staff. Tanya’s leadership philosophy is: Lead, Learn, Laugh! Tanya collaborated with the Mental Health Commission of Canada for three years positioning Pickering Public Library as an early adopter of the National Standard for Workplace Psychological Health & Safety. Tanya recently served as a workplace mental health guest panelist for the Conference Board of Canada in 2018.

In the fall of 2018, Kyla conducted a pilot study at the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies to learn more about how emotional labour manifests in public library workers’ interactions with difficult patrons. This session will begin with a brief history of the research on emotional labour, and then go over the pilot study and its findings. Through the stories of the anonymous public library workers we can better understand the emotional labour demands of public library work. Ultimately, emotional labour will never disappear from library work, but together we can find a way to recognize its existence and value.
Learning Objectives:

• Understand what emotional labour is.
• Discover how emotional labour manifests in frontline public library workers’ interactions with difficult patrons.
• Learn how organizational issues play a role in emotional labour.