RETHINKING WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH: A DISCURSIVE STUDY OF PRIVATE DISABILITY INSURANCE POLICIES IN CANADA

Abstract

Rehabilitation Consultants (RC) have a central role in Disability Management (DM) related to employee mental health (MH). There is limited published literature about the context within which these professionals operate and its impact on practice and tools available to them. The aim of this research is to obtain information about the policies that influence the practice boundaries of this group of workers, shedding light on employee MH in the Canadian work context. A poststructural approach to policy analysis, What’s the Problem Represented to Be? was used to examine private disability policies sold to employers for employees in the workplace. Findings indicate the medical model of disability is the basis on which the tools of RC’s are based, and that DM is further constrained by the neoliberal, production-oriented, full-time Canadian workplace. With a focus on the importance of occupation to health, options to use occupation as a rehabilitative tool is explored.