Psych Health and Safety Podcast USA

Dive into Episode #165 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest David Shapiro, a cultural anthropologist and sociologist who will share about the concept of Recovery Friendly Workplaces. A recovery-friendly workplace is an organization that actively supports employees in recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs) by fostering a safe, stigma-free environment and providing access to resources that promote long-term health, employment stability, and community well-being. Mr. Shapiro is not only a nationally recognized expert on the concept of recovery-friendly workplaces, but also, based on his lived experience, an advocate for workplaces that focus on treating substance use disorders and the people living with them in the same way they would treat someone with a medical condition.

Dive into Episode #164 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. M. Gloria Gonzales-Morales, the Director of the Worker Well Being Lab. The lab is dedicated to advancing research on worker wellbeing within organizational systems. It emphasizes diversity, belonging, and dismantling oppressive structures such as heteropatriarchy, racism, social inequality, and xenophobia. The Worker Wellbeing Lab is part of a growing movement to redefine occupational health and safety beyond physical hazards, emphasizing psychosocial and cultural dimensions of work. Its feminist lens makes it unique in challenging systemic inequities while promoting flourishing and belonging in organizations

Dive into Episode #163 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Peuge Benjamin, a solutions engineer and mental health advocate who focuses on the mental health challenges that impact Black Men. A Solutions Engineer is uniquely positioned to bridge technology and human need. Mr. Benjamin uses the skills and knowledge he has gained in the technology industry to help design systems that foster mental health and safe communities where black men can not only survive. When it comes to Black male mental health, their role isn’t clinical; it’s about building systems that make care accessible, trustworthy, and culturally relevant. They can design platforms that connect men to culturally competent therapists and peer networks, ensuring the interface feels safe and intuitive. They can integrate data from surveys, wearables, and community programs to highlight stress patterns and track outcomes, providing advocates with the evidence they need to push for change.

Dive into Episode #162 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Marie Milord, an experienced occupational health and safety professional, founder of SoMat Culture Consulting, who has developed a program call "Bold and Safe" which among it's goals seeks to teach psychological health and safety to young people before they go into the workforce. Based on her lived experience in heavy industry safety programs, Ms. Milord helps to arm young people with some of the skills that she has learned over time, many of them the hard way. With a program goal of not only helping them identify, assess, and mitigate psychosocial hazards in the workplace but also helping them build the resilience needed to succeed in cases where the hazard cannot be eliminated. The skills and awareness from the program help develop resilience, empathy, and leadership. Ultimately, these skills prepare young people to create healthier schools, workplaces, and communities. And most importantly, the program plants the seed that safety isn’t only about avoiding physical or psychological harm, it’s about fostering environments where everyone can thrive.

Dive into Episode #161 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Saara Haapanen, a former Olympic-level athlete, turned performance coach, whose neurodiversity led her on a voyage to understand how to create a universally healthy and safe space where humans can thrive despite their differences. Dr. Haapanen discusses her lived experience of ADHD, as well as her research on human physical and psychological performance factors, including psychobiosocial frameworks, to help organizations create workspaces that meet the needs of the humans they have gathered to do the work.

Dive into Episode #160 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Heliana Ramirez, a licensed clinical social worker, trauma therapist, and nationally recognized expert in workplace trauma recovery, and a guest from episode 96 of the podcast. In this episode, Dr. Ramirez shares her research on the challenges pregnant workers face in the workplace. The research also served as the basis for her contribution to a new book, “Corporate Blues,” which includes a series of stories about women in Toxic workplaces.

Dive into Episode #159 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Abdias Torres, a Risk and Safety Professional whose perspective on health and safety is forged by lived experience in the Oil and gas industry that includes several serious injuries and fatalities. These experiences have left an impression that informs his view that injury and death in the workplace should not be normalized as “the cost of doing business.” Given the reality that serious safety issues impact not only the people directly affected, but also many who are indirectly affected as witnesses. In these situations, the psychosocial hazard is witnessing the harm inflicted on others and the reality that these occurrences leave lasting echoes that affect the individual exposed in the long term.

Dive into Episode #158 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest retired Chief Fire Officer Tiffanye Wesley, the Chair of the Black Chief Officers’ Committee. Chief Wesley is the first female chair of the BCOC in its 40-year history and assumes this role after a string of barrier-breaking accomplishments over a 30-year career in the fire rescue service. Chief Wesley shares some of the challenges that she experienced and overcame in a system not designed for her success.

Dive into Episode #157 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest, Ms. Camay McClure-Dunn, a career legal professional, speaker, and consultant. Without question, the psychosocial hazard that we know the most about is workplace bullying. Despite what we know about the harm that workplace bullying can cause, the behaviour is still pervasive in many organizations across the United States, and targets of this behavior will often need support to process their experience and exposure. Ms. Camay works with the targets of workplace bullying to help them not only survive and recover from their exposure but also to help reframe the experience in ways that not only help them survive but also help them thrive in their long-term recovery efforts, including recognizing the “power of their exposure.”

Dive into Episode #156 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Peter Kelly, one of the global pioneers of the concept of psychological health and safety and a former regulator in the Health and Safety Executive office in the United Kingdom. Peter was one of the early contributors to the UK workplace mental health standards in 2004, which were the foundation for standards in Canada and Australia. He was also involved in the development of ISO 45003. His recent venture, “Being Real,” is a company focused on workplace mental health. He’s also the host of the “Being Real” podcast. In this episode he shares some of his knowledge and expertise. He also takes us behind the process that is taken to establish a set of enforceable standards relative to workplace mental health.