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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Health & Wellness

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Ontario Tech employees have many opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge they need to advance in their careers. Managers and supervisors are encouraged to support their staff in pursuit of professional development and personal growth in order to contribute to a positive and productive work environment.

  •             Resources additional to the professional development sessions below can be found on the Healthy Workplace Webpages.

November 2020

  • Compassion Fatigue
    • Company: Durham Mental Health Associates
    • Facilitator: David Clarke
    • Time: 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
    • Date: November 10, 2020

    Compassion Fatigue has been described as the “cost of caring” for others in emotional pain.  The educational field  has been recognized as one where workers are profoundly affected by the work they do. 

     The work of helping requires professionals to open their hearts and minds to their colleagues, students, friends, family,  and others – unfortunately, this very process of empathy is what makes us vulnerable to being profoundly affected and even possibly damaged by their work.

    Join us to learn what you can do for you.

    register

  • Planning & Prioritizing for Change: New Tactics for a New Game
    • Company: Managing Me
    • Facilitator: Doug Heidebrecht
    • Time: 9am - 12pm
    • Date: November 16, 2020

    Agility. Alignment. Focus.

    Most people, when faced with change, uncertainty and pressure to go faster, plan less. Yet the productive, agile response is to stop, think and plan more – shorter planning cycles, more frequent check-ins, and of course, more contingency planning. This highly engaging virtual session will provide you with immensely practical planning strategies to help you thrive in the new game of constant change.

    Priority Mapping (intermediate planning).

    • Stopping, thinking and adjusting for change. Reconciling changing priorities with long term strategy and direction. Making thoughtful (not reactive) choices about what is and what is not a priority for the month ahead.
    • Creating a Priority Map. Translating our strategic priorities into clear, meaningful, actionable objectives for the month ahead.
    • Powerful Aligning Questions. Not assuming, but rather checking and double checking with our leader and team so that we’re clear, confident and working off of the same page.

    Paying Priorities First (weekly/daily planning).

    • How to apply smart strategies for proactively carving out time for our key strategic priorities. (instead of waiting for a “good time” when there’s nothing else to do, and no more change or uncertainty.)
    • New planning disciplines for a new game. Highly practical tips and best practices to help us bring increased focus, agility and consistency to our planning.
    • (Optional) Planning your work-at-home day. How to stay resilient, connected and productive while working at home.

    Triaging change. How to prioritize, and if necessary, push back on, incoming tasks, requests and issues.

    • How to “resist the noise” of technology (email, IM, Social Media) and create small windows of high quality, undistracted focus time.
    • Good questions and other strategies to help us diplomatically push back on lower priority requests and tangents.

    register


December 2020

  • Suicide Awareness

    Facilitator:  Jack Veitch, Manager of Community Engagement and Education, CMHA
    Dates: December 1, 2020
    Time: 9 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
    Room: Zoom

     

    Overview

    This presentation aims to provide the audience with information outlining the facts surrounding suicide in Canada. This course examines the statistics of suicide as well as potentially high risk categories of individuals. This training is not an intervention skill building course, however, it will examine the simple direction to take if you believe someone is experiencing thoughts of suicide.

     register


February 2021

  • Safe Talk
    • Company: CMHC
    • Facilitator: Jack Veitch, Manager of Community Engagement and Education, CMHA
    • Time: 9am - 4pm
    • Date: February 9, 2021

    A groundbreaking new way to learn suicide prevention skills

     In just one hour online, LivingWorks Start teaches trainees to recognize when someone is thinking about suicide and connect them to help and support.

    Learn and practice powerful, life-saving skills in just four hours

     Using a simple yet effective model, LivingWorks safeTALK empowers everyone to make a difference. With over 120,000 people attending each year, it's the world's fastest-growing suicide prevention training.

    register


March 2021

  • Stress
    • Company: Durham Mental Health Associates
    • Facilitator: David Clarke
    • Time: 9:30am - 11:30am
    • Date: March 16, 2021

    register

  • Compassion Fatigue
    • Company: Durham Mental Health Associates
    • Facilitator: David Clarke
    • Time: 9:30am - 11:30am
    • Date: Wednesday March 24, 2021

    When we help others alleviate or manage hardship, suffering and pain, we perform a crucial role in our society. Inevitably, though, this critical work can negatively impact us through exposure to others’ distress. Without active and effective strategies to manage our own wellbeing, we find ourselves exhausted and depleted – in other words, we experience compassion fatigue.

    This 2-hour workshop on compassion fatigue puts a spotlight on the caregiver’s health, answering important questions such as:

    • What is compassion fatigue?
    • What distorted beliefs – about my role or about the role of those I’m trying to assist– can put me at heightened risk of developing it?
    • How can I recognize compassion fatigue in myself or my colleagues?
    • What evidence-based strategies can I use to maintain or reclaim my sense of wellbeing, regardless of the pain I am exposed to?

    Learning Objectives:

    As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

    • Understand how and why compassion fatigue develops
    • Uncover the distorted beliefs that put us at greater risk
    • Recognize the early warning signs
    • Learn and implement evidence-based strategies for maintaining or getting back to good health

    Register 


April 2021

  • Mastering the Mental Game of Resilience
    • Company: Managing Me
    • Facilitator: Doug Heidebrecht
    • Time: 9am - 12pm
    • Date: Thursday, April 27 2021

    Resilience. Energy. Mental Focus.

    This highly practical session is all about helping people build their resilience, stay energized and achieve mental focus while facing the pressure of constant change and overwhelming uncertainty.

    Attention Engineering. Turning off the autopilot and intentionally designing what we want to focus on.

    • Gratitude. An easy, yet highly impactful practice for building resilience and mental wellness.
    • Reframing. Embracing the “gift” in change & uncertainty.

    Practical Mindfulness. Training the brain to help us be more present and in the moment.

    • Understanding the proven benefits of mindfulness and why it is now embraced by leading corporations, academic institutions and professionals as a powerful tool to support resilience, focus and performance.

    Recharging the Brain. Working with our mental Energy, not against it.

    • Recharge strategies to maximize our energy and reduce burnout at work. Applying the Basic Rest Activity Cycle to work with our energy, not against it.

    Time to Think. The under appreciated key to Resilience.

    • Tips and best practices to create windows of high quality, “decontaminated” time to think and reflect.

    Recreation & Balance. Taking care of ourselves so that we can take better care of others.

    • A practical balance exercise to help busy people carve out more time for their passions and themselves.
    • Understanding how critical social interaction is for our resilience, health & well being – and strategies to build more connection into our lives.

    Purpose, Values & Goals

    • Cultivating our Drive and Commitment by connecting to what’s most important for us.

    Action Planning

    • Crafting a daily routine/ ritual that will help you stay resilient and show-up the way you want to show-up.

    register


July 2021

  • Building Resilience
    • Company: Durham Mental Health Associates
    • Facilitator: David Clarke, Durham Mental Health Services
    • Time: 1pm - 3pm
    • Date: Monday, July 13, 2021

    Resilience is the capacity to bounce back physically, mentally and emotionally from adversity. The great news is that all of us have it, it can always be enhanced, and researchers know more about how we can do so than ever before.

    This 2-hour workshop on ways to strengthen our capacity for resilience uses current research to answer such questions as: What are the psychological and behavioural foundations of resilience? How can I maintain a resilient outlook? What is post-traumatic growth? How can I move from being a victim of circumstances to a survivor to a change-maker in my life?

    Learning Objectives:

    As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

    • Understand the psychological and behavioural foundations of resilience
    • Learn a variety of simple, practical ways to enhance their own individual resilience
    • Learn how to promote resilience among the members of any group they belong to (family, work, community)
    • Learn about the exciting research on the phenomenon of post-traumatic growth
    • See how to take an empowered and proactive stance in response to adversity

     register


Resources:

BEACON is a personalized digital mental and behavioural health therapy service guided by registered mental health professionals and accessible from the privacy of your own home. BEACON is available free of charge for all Ontarians during COVID-19 (funded by the Government of Ontario).