William W. Creighton Youth Services

Empowering People. Inspiring Communities.

Psychological Health and Wellness Policy
About Health & Safety Psychological Health and Wellness Policy

Trauma Informed Practice is an understanding and recognition of the frequency of trauma, and how trauma affects all individuals in the system.  Wm. W. Creighton Youth Services aspires to become a model organization for optimizing the health of its employees, and believes that the physical, psychological well-being and safety of all employees are key aspects leading to organization success and sustainability.  Board members, management, and staff at William W. Creighton Youth Services are committed to being continually trauma-informed using education, training, screening, navigation, and referrals.  It is a shared responsibility of employees and the organization to promote and enhance working relationships consistent with the principles of respect, confidentiality, and cooperation in culturally responsive ways. We believe in being trauma informed through the guiding principles of collaboration and partnership, community and inclusion, ethics and integrity, and resilience and safety.

Wm. W. Creighton Youth Services is committed to working collaboratively with its employees to create and sustain a physically and psychologically healthy and safe work environment.  The psychological health and wellness committee will help to lead this process. This committee includes members representing all aspects of work, with a shared purpose resulting in a mobilization of energies for the implementation and continual improvement of a healthy and safe work environment.

The agency will

  • Foster an organizational culture that promotes physical and psychological health and safety
  • Ensure compliance with relevant Occupational health and safety legislation in all aspects of physical health and safety, and pursue the implementation of the national standards on psychological health and safety including the application of standards, regulations, guidelines and best practices.
  • Provide and sustain the infrastructure and resources to create and maintain a system that promotes a physical and psychological healthy and safe workplace and evaluate on a regular basis.
  • Create and maintain a culture of continuous performance improvement through the creation of future formal policies and processes and additionally monitoring the existing formal policies of the program using the guiding principles of trauma-informed practice.
  • Consider and actively practice diversity through individual responses through creative and community solutions with respect to policies, programs and supports.
  • Value contractors and suppliers that demonstrate commitment to, and leadership in, the area of psychological health and well-being.
  • Apply and adhere to the principles of confidentiality as per applicable internal policies and legislative requirements in its interactions with employees, including reporting of information and data gathered through recruitment, employee surveys, payroll and benefits, and procedures  including accident/incident investigations.
  • Administrative level support of trauma-informed practice, including education and human resources practices that support trauma-related concerns.
  • Provide all necessary training and awareness in a resilient, culturally responsive way with a focus on protective factors.

Employees will:   

  • Embrace the guiding principles of trauma-informed practice by routinely screening their environment for trauma exposure and related symptoms.
  • Participate in the development and ongoing work with psychological health and wellness, including being involved in policy development.
  • Participate in ongoing surveys and evaluations of the psychological wellness program.
  • Commit to ongoing training.
  • Support and promote psychological and physical health and safety in their workplace in all aspects of their daily work.

Communication

This policy will be communicated in the agency Personnel and Policy manual.

Training

All employees will be trained upon orientation and review annually thereafter in annual performance reviews, and review of policies and procedures

Wm. W. Creighton Youth Services will continually strive to achieve physical and psychological health and safety performance that we are proud of to earn the confidence of employees, board, partners, our funder, other stakeholders and the public.

Evaluation

This policy will be continually evaluated by the psychological wellness committee.

Celebrating Successes / Making Improvements

Improvements will be made upon the recommendation of the psychological/wellness committee, and successes will be celebrated during NAOSH week, in conjunction with mental health week.