TORONTO -- The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Bank of Montreal are partnering to help companies to address mental health issues in the workplace.

They say improving workplace mental health can help reduce costs and result in higher performance and lower absenteeism.

In a report, CAMH makes five key recommendations for businesses.

The playbook calls on companies to create a long-term, organization-wide mental health strategy and institute mandatory mental health leadership training.

The report also suggests developing tailored mental health supports, prioritizing and optimizing a return-to-work checklist and tracking progress of the strategy.

CAMH estimates the economic burden of mental illness in Canada at $51 billion annually.