UBC’s Workplace Wellbeing team helps build healthier workplaces through university-wide wellbeing services to support leaders, departments, and units, as well as individual faculty and staff.
Our work is grounded in evidence-informed approaches and supports the advancement of UBC’s strategic commitments. Find out about all the services and workshops you can access to embed wellbeing into your workplace.
Request a consultation today
We have many resources to help create a thriving workplace, but a discussion with one of our consultants is the best place to start. Speak with us today to help navigate the available options and guide you to the programs or workshops that suit your needs. Workplace Wellbeing Consultants are available by request to:
- Provide consultation on strategic thinking, planning, and/or evaluation as it relates to workplace wellbeing or wellbeing programs (e.g. the Activate Wellbeing Toolkit, Not Myself Today, Workplace Wellbeing Ambassadors)
- Identify opportunities, barriers, and interventions as they relate to workplace wellbeing
- Design and/or facilitate educational sessions, workshops or other learning opportunities
- Partner on events or initiatives related to campus wellbeing or the impact of wellbeing on faculty and staff.
If you do not have the information to complete the questions or would prefer to speak directly to a team member, contact the Workplace Wellbeing team: hr.healthwellbeing@ubc.ca. Submissions are reviewed within 7 business days at which time a member of the team will reach out.
*Please note that our team requires 4-6 weeks lead time for workshop booking/requests.
Training and workshops for faculty and staff
Mental Health 101 (virtual facilitated and self-paced)
Understanding mental health can be difficult. Learning how to support someone who might be in a mental health crisis can be even more challenging. The goal of this session is to increase mental health literacy while providing tools and skills to respond effectively in a caring and respectful way.
Participants will:
- Learn to better understand mental health and mental illness
- Understand structural and social stigma as barriers to seeking help
- Learn how to respond when concerned about a family member, friend or colleague
Audience: Faculty and staff, particularly those in front-facing or first-responder roles.
Time: 1.5 Hours
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Positive coping strategies: Supporting your mental health (virtual option)
We all have go-to habits that we turn to in times of high stress or challenge, but are these habits working for you or against you? Our mental health can greatly be supported and maintained with the help of positive coping strategies, however, it can be tough to identify the right ones, and to stick with them. In this session, participants can learn about concepts like resilience and coping while testing out coping practices that have been shown to support mental health and wellbeing.
Audience: Faculty and staff
Time: 1 – 1.5 hour
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Self & Community Care (virtual facilitated and self-paced)
We don’t always take the time to care for and nurture ourselves and we sometimes require support in integrating relaxation and our personal needs into daily life. This session focuses on increasing mental health literacy through self-care for individuals. Participants will learn about the body’s stress response and how to identify these responses in themselves. They will have an opportunity to take a stress index, explore what self-care means to them and identify key UBC resources that can be engaged to support work life integration and positive mental health.
Audience: Faculty and staff.
Time: 1 Hour
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Understanding your Employee and Family Assistance Program (virtual facilitated and self-paced)
Offering expert information and immediate support resources to help with work, health and life challenges, the EFAP provides both short-term clinical counselling and work/life consultations to all eligible UBC employees and their dependents. This presentation provides an overview and detailed explanation of all services and access information.
Audience: Faculty and staff
Time: 15 Minutes
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UBC Wellbeing Resources Overview (virtual)
This presentation provides an overview of all UBC HR’s health and wellbeing services and resources that are available to UBC faculty, staff and post-doctoral fellows (award recipients and employees).
Audience: Faculty, staff and post-doctoral fellows (award-recipients and employees)
Time: 15 Minutes
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Preventing Burnout (self-paced)
Feel like you're running on empty? Finding it hard to say no? Struggling to set effective boundaries? You might be at risk of burning out. In today's world, we are pulled in so many directions that it can leave us feeling exhausted and detached. This session will examine the very real impact of a variety of factors on our mental health, and explore the signs and indicators of burnout. Take away a set of supportive strategies for recognizing and preventing burnout before it takes hold.
Audience: Faculty and staff
Enrol in the self-paced learning
Mindfulness and the benefits at work (self-paced only)
Mindfulness is quickly becoming a popular tool to improve both mental health and overall wellbeing. But what is it exactly, and how can it be of use in the workplace? In this session you and your team will learn about the basic elements involved in mindfulness practice and how current UBC research has uncovered a link between mindfulness practice and stress, interpersonal relationships, conflict, emotional reactivity, energy, productivity and much more.
Audience: Faculty and staff
Enrol in the self-paced learning course
The Working Mind: workplace mental health training for faculty & staff (virtual option)
Established by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Working Mind is an evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting. It includes scenario-based practical applications, custom videos of people with lived experience of mental illness, participant reference guides, and related handouts. The program is available in two versions: one for managers and one for employees.
Audience: UBC faculty and staff
Time: 5 hours (can be delivered over multiple days)
Participants will:
- Learn about the basic concepts, risk factors and causes of mental illness and mental disorders
- Gain the confidence, tools and resources to support colleagues who may be experiencing mental health problems or illness
- Learn about the Mental Health Continuum Model, how to observe changes in mental health, and how to take appropriate action
- Develop resilience and health-coping strategies
- Build their mental health literacy to help recognize, support colleagues with mental health challenges in the workplace
Understanding your UBC benefits
Do you know what is covered under your benefits plan? Book this session to learn:
- Which benefits you are eligible for
- The cost and coverage of your benefits
- How to make claims using your benefits
- What the Employee and Family Assistance Plan offers and how to access these resources
- Who to contact if you have questions
Audience: Faculty and staff
Time: 1 hour
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Know before you go: Understanding your Travel Benefits
Join UBC Benefits Administrator, Janet McHugh, in this 1-hour session on understanding your travel benefits.
Audience: Staff and Faculty
Time: 1 hour
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Training and workshops for managers
Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace for Managers and Supervisors (required training)
In January 2023, UBC launched an important required training for managers and supervisors called Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace for Managers and Supervisors. This training is currently available in the Workplace Learning ecosystem (WPL).
Developed for people leaders, this required mental health training will help leaders manage and support their teams during challenging times and ensure they are aware of their responsibilities to teams and direct reports. At UBC, we are committed to the mental health and wellbeing of our community which is why we offer a range of programs, training and resources to support teams – this training is yet another aspect of UBC's strategic efforts to embed wellbeing into our workplaces.
Mental health literacy is an ongoing effort, and this training is one step in a long journey that managers and supervisors can take to build a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. Managers and supervisors can revisit and complete this course at any time, including access to additional resources and toolkits.
Supporting Resilient Teams: Recognizing and managing burnout (self-paced)
Feel like you're running on empty? Has your team's capacity reached its max? Concerned about the ability of your team to sustain this level of work and stay well? Your team might be at risk of burning out. In today's world, we are pulled in so many directions that it can leave us feeling exhausted and detached. This session will examine the very real impact of a variety of factors on our mental health, and explore the signs and indicators of burnout that leaders should be aware of. Take away a set of supportive leadership strategies for recognizing and supporting burnout prevention within teams.
Audience: Managers, supervisors, team leaders
The Working Mind: workplace mental health training for managers (virtual option)
Established by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Working Mind is an evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting. It includes scenario-based practical applications, custom videos of people with lived experience of mental illness, participant reference guides, and related handouts. The program is available in two versions: one for managers and one for employees.
Audience: UBC managers and supervisors
Time: 7 hours (can be delivered over multiple days)
Participants will:
- Learn about the basic concepts, risk factors and causes of mental illness and mental disorders
- Gain the confidence, tools and resources to manage and support employees who may be experiencing mental health problems or illness
- Learn about the Mental Health Continuum Model, how to observe changes in employees along the continuum, and how to take appropriate action
- Develop resilience and health-coping strategies
- Build their mental health literacy to help recognize, manage and support colleagues with mental health challenges in the workplace
External Vendors
If you are a presenter, trainer or workshop provider and would like to work with us, please fill in this External Proposal Form.
Contact us
We’re available to provide informative presentations regarding mental health resources and support on and off-campus. Email Erica Altomare, Workplace Wellbeing Learning Specialist, for more information
Please email Amanda Swoboda for mental health training and programs at the UBC Okanagan Campus.