Psychological health & safety for industrial operations
Not substances. Not fatigue. OHSR s.4.19 says that worker can't be assigned where the impairment creates undue risk. Most operations have three options at that moment: ignore it, send him home indefinitely, or hand him the EAP number. None of those is a control, and none of them documents anything.
I build the fourth option.
Every operation has a fitness-for-duty standard for alcohol and drugs. Most have a fatigue management plan. Almost none have a documented pathway for psychological impairment — which is the one a shift boss is most likely to encounter and least equipped to act on.
The result is predictable. Supervisors freeze, because freezing is the rational choice when there's no pathway. Or they improvise, and the improvisation becomes the liability.
What a pathway looks like: same-day clinical triage, a one-page work capability report the supervisor can act on, the worker routed into actual care with confidentiality intact, and follow-up at 72 hours, 30 days and 90 days.
A record behind the decision instead of a gut feeling in a truck at shift change.
This is no longer a wellness question. It is moving into the regulation, and part of it is already there.
The Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines was amended to require a program addressing bullying and harassment, sexual harassment and violence on mine sites. The Province published its guidance document in July 2026.
WorkSafeBC is consulting on a new Part 4.1 that would require employers to identify, assess and control psychosocial hazards, review controls for continued effectiveness, and educate and train workers on the hazards relevant to their work. It goes to public hearing after that.
WorkSafeBC has prevention officers running a planned inspectional initiative on psychological health and safety. Officers are inspecting and conducting consultation and education today.
8,065 psychological-injury-only claims were reported to WorkSafeBC in 2025; 2,613 were allowed. Claim costs sit in a three-year experience rating window that can move a premium by up to a 50% discount or a 100% surcharge.
Sources: BC Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines · WorkSafeBC Psychological Health & Safety Initiative · WorkSafeBC experience rating · ICMM psychological health & safety tools
Structured against the 13 factors in CAN/CSA-Z1003 and the psychosocial hazards described in ISO 45003:2021.
Crew sessions across all rotations including night shift, supervisor and superintendent interviews, and a confidential individual channel. Output is a psychosocial hazard register in your format, rated on your matrix, ready to drop into the register you already maintain — plus a findings report and a gap statement against ISO 45003 and CSA Z1003.
This produces a hazard register entry, not a wellbeing score. It is built to be auditable.
Half day, on site, maximum twenty. Supervisors are trained to notice, act and hand off — not to assess, diagnose, counsel or fix.
Built against the three failure modes: freezing and hoping it resolves on days off, playing therapist, or saying the thing that turns it into a grievance.
May be eligible for the B.C. Employer Training Grant, which reimburses employers 80% of eligible training costs. Employers apply directly with their Business BCeID.
Crew sessions on site and one-on-one telehealth on rotation schedules — nights, days off, from camp.
Critical incident callout included. Standardized outcome measurement on every worker who comes through — PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, AUDIT-C — reported quarterly, de-identified and aggregated.
You look at your own data at the end of quarter one.
Fees are quoted per site. Day count depends on headcount, number of rotations, and whether night shift runs as a separate crew — so I don't quote before I know those three.
This is the question that matters most, so it goes near the top rather than in the fine print.
I do not determine anyone's fitness for duty. That stays with you. It is your duty under s.4.19 and it is not delegable to a contractor.
You can't have the same person assessing a worker and treating him; it falls apart the first time it's tested. What I provide is the clinical input and the paper — triage, a work capability report, a documented route, and structured follow-up. Where a formal evaluation or a diagnosis is needed for a WorkSafeBC claim, that goes to a registered psychologist, not to me.
That last one is a condition of the work rather than a preference. It is what makes the crew sessions produce anything true.
An OHS consultancy can write the register but cannot take the clinical referral. A clinician can take the referral but has usually never held supervisory authority on a site, and will not be credible in the dry at shift change.
Assessments are conducted personally. This work is not subcontracted.
On the assessment. If it does not identify at least three psychosocial hazards your current management system is not controlling — each with a written, actionable control recommendation — no fee is payable. Travel costs already incurred are not refunded.
On outcomes. Standardized measures on every worker who comes through, reported to you quarterly, de-identified and aggregated. If the numbers aren't moving, you cancel.
On critical incident response. On site within 24 hours of callout, or that callout isn't billed.
I'm not going to hand you a return-on-investment figure I can't source. By the end of quarter one you'll be looking at your own data instead of mine.
No material to review beforehand. If it isn't relevant to your operation you'll know inside ten minutes.
Book 30 minutes (778) 921-0960 Email
Serving mines, mills, contractors and industrial operations in the Southern Interior and across British Columbia. Based in Kamloops.