This column appeared in the Winter 2023 edition of Workplace Issues magazine
WorkSafe Tasmania and the WorkCover Tasmania Board are continuing to focus on improving workplace mental health in 2023. In recent years we have hosted WorkSafe Month webinars and presentations, developed our online guidance, and held the mental health awareness media campaign in 2019.
Building on this work, the Board and WorkSafe are developing initiatives to prevent mental health injuries because of work, and better manage them when they do happen. These initiatives include:
- building information, education and compliance programs to support workplaces as they comply with the new regulations for psychosocial hazards. This includes developing a psychosocial hazards regulation strategy that will inform industry about our focus, including priority psychosocial hazards, priority industries, and WorkSafe’s approach to education, advice, compliance and enforcement
- working with employers, unions and researchers to develop a workplace mental health framework to improve mental health outcomes for Tasmanian workers
- developing information and training to increase understanding of PTSD among GPs, workers compensation scheme participants and others
- working with State Government agencies and unions to identify solutions to improve injury outcomes in the Tasmanian State Service
- developing a family support framework that supports seriously injured workers and families of workers who have died in a workplace incident.
Our work is informed by national and state initiatives, reports and resources which have value for workplace leaders and employers. To inform your progress towards respectful and mentally safe workplaces, I encourage you to look at:
- Respect@Work, which aims to create safe inclusive and respectful workplaces for us all. Respect@Work has information, videos, training programs and guides that can help organisations put measures in place to prevent and appropriately respond to sexual harassment in the workplace
- the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, and its practical guidance. This aims to help employers create safe workplaces where sexual harassment is a problem of the past
- Rethink 2020, Tasmania’s strategic mental health plan. It is a shared approach to improving mental health outcomes for Tasmanians
- the 2018 Australian Senate conducted an inquiry into the prevention, investigation and prosecution of industrial deaths in Australia, which highlighted the devastating personal, social and economic impacts on bereaved families
- the new Tasmanian Suicide Prevention Strategy 2023-2027 setting out the vision and priorities for preventing suicide in Tasmania for the next five years. The strategy includes statements from people with lived experience, drawing on the experience and expertise of the Tasmanian community to develop a strategy that is relevant and meets community needs and expectations.
I also encourage you to start leading the change in your workplace to prevent psychosocial hazards from happening, or managing them to ensure your workers are safe. Tasmania recently adopted the code of practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work. I encourage you to use the code to understand what these hazards are, and start doing risk assessments with your workers to find out if they exist in your workplace and start working to control them.
Use the free psychosocial risk assessment tool People at Work to understand the hazards in your workplace. Help your staff learn about psychosocial hazards using the free competency-based Head4Work training and assessment program.
La Trobe University’s APHIRM toolkit provides free, cloud-based tools and resources to help you manage physical and psychosocial hazards. Workplace Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are linked to psychosocial hazards, so this is an exciting new tool.
Managing psychosocial hazards may seem new and daunting at first, but as you’ve read, there are many resources available to support you and your workers take important steps towards mentally safer workplaces.
In 2023 our Inspectors are continuing with compliance programs across the four main priority areas of distilleries, construction, silica exposure and transport. Inspectors have been visiting workplaces in these industries and areas checking for compliance with requirements under the work health and safety laws. If you’re an employer in these areas, make sure your safety systems are compliant before an inspector visits your workplace by using our online guidance.