Mental wellbeing, mental health, psychological hazards….. employers throw around any number of ‘strategic’ terms to label, categorise and address it. In truth though, and more often than not, employer-driven mental health programs tend to start and stop at labels and marketing campaigns, with very little practical impact ever occuring. 

So what are we talking about when we say psychological hazard? The term is used to describe anything which may have a negative impact on a persons mental health, often measured via a clinically diagnosed condition. 

Under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2020, a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) has a duty to prevent harm and ensure a safe working environment and safe systems of work, to prevent foreseeable harm to health, at a level deemed reasonably practicable (short summary). Here, the definition of health includes physical and psychological health. In short summary, an employer has a health and safety responsibility to ensure its policies, procedures and practices prevent harm to a persons mental health. 

Here are some tips to help you meet your health and safety responsibilities to workers in the area of mental health:

1)  ‘Identifying any risks to worker mental health’ when introducing any new work, policies, procedures or other type of change to the work environment. 

2) Undertake a risk assessment for any identified risks, and identify which risks might likely cause harm to your workers. 

3) Following the above, ensure your business considers all actions and controls which could be implemented to lower the risk to a reasonable level. 

4) Make sure all safety investigations and claim management procedures include mental health provisions to identify any psychological safety improvements which can be considered.

5) Ensure your safety and human resource (HR) teams follow procedures and policies, and consider mental health when managing incidents and grievances. An overlooked source of psychological hazards is often within the aftermath of HR action taken within the business. Except in limited circumstances (for example, performance management), an impact to a workers’ mental health following interaction with the HR team is likely a serious risk. 

6) Be guided and seek advice from medical professionals. Employers often make the mistake of managing psychological hazards differently to physical hazards. Similar to how an employer would likely send a worker to a GP following a manual handling injury, the same approach holds true for psychological injuries. If you have a worker who reports a psychological injury, seek medical advice to guide your business on the suitable next steps to take in order to prevent further harm to that worker.