Burnout, Mental Health and Resilience Take Center Stage at VPPPA Safety+
Ryan Campbell explored how mental health and well-being can influence resilience, performance and safety at work.
- By Stasia DeMarco
- Aug 31, 2026
Mental health, burnout and resilience took center stage at the VPPPA Safety+ Symposium as keynote speaker Ryan Campbell challenged safety professionals to consider how personal well-being can influence the way people function at work.
Campbell, an aviator and resilience speaker, told attendees that workers and leaders operate amid constant pressures, setbacks and responsibilities. Maintaining balance, he said, affects more than how people feel.
“Balance is what determines not just how we feel, but how we function,” Campbell said.
Campbell drew that message from his own experience with extreme adversity. As a teenager, he became the youngest person and first teenager to fly solo around the world. A few years later, his life changed dramatically when the vintage aircraft he was piloting lost power shortly after takeoff and crashed.
Campbell suffered multiple injuries, including five fractures in his back, and was initially diagnosed as a complete paraplegic. Following months in the hospital and extensive rehabilitation, he gradually regained significant mobility and eventually returned to aviation.
But Campbell told attendees that physical recovery did not resolve everything.
After moving to the United States and building a successful speaking career, Campbell said his life appeared successful from the outside. Behind the scenes, however, he was struggling with his mental health. He described working relentlessly to achieve the things he believed would make him successful again following the crash.
That experience eventually led Campbell to rethink the role that joy, recovery and personal interests play in resilience. His unlikely symbol became a 1960 pink Cadillac, which he uses to illustrate the importance of intentionally making room for activities and experiences that restore energy and provide relief from everyday pressures.
For safety professionals, Campbell connected that concept to a familiar practice: auditing.
Organizations routinely audit safety procedures, compliance, systems and performance to determine what is working and where adjustments are needed. Campbell encouraged attendees to take a similar approach to their own time and energy by assessing what supports their well-being and intentionally incorporating those activities into their lives.
The message also extended to leadership. Campbell encouraged attendees not only to identify what restores their own energy but to recognize the importance of well-being among people in their personal and professional circles.
Campbell emphasized that moments of joy do not eliminate workplace pressures or personal adversity. Instead, he argued, they can help people develop the capacity to manage those challenges.
“They won't solve your problems overnight, they won't make it all go away,” Campbell said. But those moments, he added, can provide “the resilience, the balance and the bandwidth required to show up as your best self.
About the Author
Stasia DeMarco is the content editor of Occupational Health & Safety.