The Working Mind
Long-Term Care Manager
FOR LONG-TERM CARE LEADERS
Leading in long-term care means carrying both the weight of your residents and the weight of your team.
Long-term care has always asked a lot of the people who work in it, and long before the pandemic, the Mental Health Commission of Canada was already hearing about chronic stress and burnout among staff. COVID added fear and uncertainty to work that was demanding to begin with, which is why the Commission worked with the Canadian Association for Long Term Care to create a version of The Working Mind made specifically for care homes.
It’s designed for managers and employees in every department, from nursing and food services to recreation and spiritual care, because a resident’s day is shaped by all of them. Your managers learn to recognize early signs of stress in their teams and in themselves, and to start supportive conversations before a hard stretch turns into something heavier. Your staff gain a shared language for talking about how they’re really doing.
The result is a team who feels heard, leaders who stay steady under pressure, and a workplace where people feel psychologically safe to speak up.
Your team looks after your residents. This is how you look after your team.
Group bookings only.
The Working Mind: Long-Term Care Manager is delivered privately, scheduled around your leadership team’s shifts. Directors of care, unit managers and team leads set the tone for how mental health is talked about in a home, and training them together builds a consistent approach across care and support teams. Available virtually across Canada, or in person in the Lower Mainland. In-person delivery elsewhere is available with travel costs covered.
$375 + GST per person. 8 hrs.
Contact us to check group sizes and availability.
hello@ateliermhl.ca
Long Term Care workers entered the pandemic already at elevated risk. A decade of data (2014-2024) comparing care aide burnout levels shows emotional exhaustion increased sharply during COVID-19, and professional efficacy has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Managers are leading teams still carrying that weight.
Hospital News, 2025, reporting research by Janice Keefe, Mount Saint Vincent University
The Curriculum
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Developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, this evidence-based program speaks directly to the realities of long-term care leadership: chronic understaffing, high turnover, and the compassion fatigue that comes with the job. It's delivered by a facilitator who has managed teams herself, not just studied them. The videos, scenarios, and case studies throughout are drawn directly from long-term care settings, including stories shared by real long-term care staff about their own mental health struggles and recovery. Exceptional care depends on sustainable leadership, so this course protects your own resilience just as much as it builds your ability to support your team. What happens in the room reflects what you're already living day to day.
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We'll start by setting a foundation for mental health and wellness specifically within the context of long-term care. This module dives into the structural impact of stigma in healthcare, looking at how facility culture determines whether a frontline worker feels safe to ask for help, or feels forced to burn out in silence.
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Next, we'll introduce the Mental Health Continuum Model, a practical framework that takes the guesswork out of team management. You'll learn how to track early behavioral indicators of distress across your shifts, giving you the confidence to intervene and open a supportive dialogue long before an employee reaches a breaking point.
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After lunch, we'll shift our focus entirely to you. Healthcare leadership comes with unique psychological demands, including moral injury and vicarious trauma. You'll analyze your own stress responses and learn evidence-informed strategies to manage the fatigue of the job, ensuring you can protect your own mental health while leading others.
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We'll close the day by putting these frameworks into direct action. You'll practice the exact language and trauma-informed communication needed to support a struggling team member. We'll outline how to manage workplace accommodations, navigate critical incidents on the floor, and confidently determine when and how to bridge a staff member to professional care.
Please note
For prevention purposes, this course includes content on suicide awareness. Verbal trigger warnings are provided prior to discussing this material to ensure a safe, supportive learning environment for everyone.
Reduces stigma in a sector where burnout is often treated as routine rather than addressed
Recognizes early warning signs in your care staff using the Mental Health Continuum, before strain affects the residents they support
Prepares you to support a struggling team member through chronic understaffing and the emotional weight of long-term care work
Atelier Mental Health Literacy + Facilitation delivers The Working Mind as parallel programmes - one designed specifically for managers and one for employees - because what each group needs from this training is genuinely different.
When both cohorts complete their respective streams, they return to the same workplace with a shared language and shared frameworks for mental health. That shared foundation is what builds psychological safety - and psychological safety is what changes workplace culture.