Mental Health in the Workplace
Why do I even need to consider mental health in the workplace?
Why is mental health in the workplace so important? Well, you may have heard at any leadership forum or workshop that "Your people are your most important asset". So if that is true, what are you doing to look after the most important assets in your organisation?
By understanding that mental wellness is part of every person's life, you have the ability to project a positive (and negative) influence on the lives of people you interact with, either on a daily basis, and even in a one-off encounter.
There are many factors in an organisation that can influence on the mental wellbeing of your people, and through a process of identifying, assessing and managing those factors - you can impact people's lives for their benefit - and yours.
Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work
What are Psychosocial Hazards?
The Code of Practice describes Psychosocial Hazards as 'aspects of our work which have the potential to cause psychological or physical harm'.
What does all this mean for you?
Workplace Health and Safety now draws attention to the requirement for organisations and businesses to manage the psychosocial hazards within their workplace. A new Code of Practice called Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work, recognised under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, provides guidance on this.
The Code of Practice provides a process to identify and eliminate or minimise the psychosocial hazards, so far as is reasonably practical.
A psychosocial risk assessment provides a practical tool to manage the psychosocial risks and meet the duty of care under the WHS Act. This forms part of our psychoeducation focus.
Psychosocial hazards are situations, tasks, processes etc related to psychological and social conditions within the workplace, that can create stress. They result from the way work is designed, organised, and managed that can increase the risk of work-related stress - including anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns. Stress is the body's reaction when a worker perceives the demands of their work exceed their ability or their available resources to cope.
If an organisation already knows the psychosocial risks they are able to apply control factors to manage those risks. However, if an organisation is not aware of these, then the Psychosocial Risk Assessment (PRA) provides the means to identify, assess, control and review them.
Wild Wellness can undertake the PRA on your behalf, to meet Steps 1 and 2 of the overall management process - to Identify and Assess the psychosocial hazards. This process involves gathering of information, via a (completely confidential) online staff survey, some statistical information, and through management and observations. The hazards are then assessed to determine risk levels, prioritise, and create opportunity to develop risk management protocols. These can then be implemented and monitored for their effectiveness.
But don't worry, we can be with you every step of the way to help you manage the psychosocial risks within your organisation, and meet your obligations under the WHS Act.