The challenges around the mental health and wellbeing of working people have been the subject of increasing interest in recent years, but the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has added a whole new dimension to the debate.
As part of National Safe Work Month 2020, Comcare is hosting a series of webinars, including one on COVID-19, our work, mental health and wellbeing.
Co-presented by Comcare, Beyond Blue and the Future of Work Institute, the purpose of the event was to explore the rapid and large-scale changes that workplaces of different sizes and across various industries have undertaken in the face of COVID-19.
The first speaker was Ngaire Anderson, director of mental health and research at Comcare, with many years experience as a paramedic then in various health sector board roles.
Ms Anderson noted that workplace mental health is a key focus for all Australian workers' compensation and WHS authorities. Because the prevalence of workplace mental health incidents continues to rise, there is an increasing emphasis on early intervention, so critical for improving recovery and return to work outcomes for ill or injured workers.
Comcare is engaged in a number of mental health initiatives designed to proactively prevent psychological harm, support recovery and return to work and promote positive mental health practices across workplaces, and Ms Anderson’s presentation provided some insights into these efforts.
She said that encouraging workers to get back to a COVID safe workplace is a key priority, so Comcare has developed a suite of mental health and wellbeing guidance and resources to provide employers and workers with practical tips around things like how to live with uncertainty and responding positively in productive ways.
A new eLearn in the final stages of development aims to introduce learners to psychological safety in the workplace, enabling them to identify the legislation and national guidance material relevant to psychological risk management, to help managers and workers better understand workplace responsibilities in relation to COVID-19. The emphasis is on identifying work-related stressors and exploring the psychological safety climate.
She elaborated on lead indicators that can alert management when there's likely to be a negative trend in psychosocial risks and therefore help organisations make preemptive changes that will influence WHS outcomes.
She also noted that a service known as NewAccess, developed in partnership with Beyond Blue, that has been rolled out in the Australian Public Service, has received hundreds of contacts, mostly in relation to workload demands, family issues, and changes in the workplace.
Ms Anderson was followed by Linda Sheahan, the workplace engagement manager at Beyond Blue. She shared some insights about what Beyond Blue has been observing at the community level, priorities for workplace mental health, and examples of common psychosocial hazards. Her presentation also explored practical issues relating to self-care and help-seeking.
Ms Sheahan spoke of the dedicated coronavirus mental wellbeing support service established by Beyond Blue, with support from Medibank and the Federal Department of Health. She mentioned the mental health continuum – the idea that people's health is sitting on a continuum ranging from healthy at the green end to unsettled or at risk and unwell at the red end. Our mental health isn't static, she said but moves along the continuum, and in 2020 our sense of coping may be shifting day-to-day or hour by hour, what with heightened levels of uncertainty and the many rapid changes in work arrangements and possibilities.
Support services report a 30% increase in calls over the course of the pandemic, despite the evidence that most of us are not very good at identifying our mental health issues, with a tendency to overestimate how well we’re coping and wait too long before taking action. The ongoing barriers to seeking help include the perceptions that getting help is likely to be complex, expensive, stigmatising, risky for their privacy and unlikely to deliver benefit.
It’s a positive sign, however, that businesses and individuals are showing increasing levels of awareness for the importance of mental health.
The third speaker was Professor Karina Jorritsma from the Future of Work Institute at Curtin University, who has a background in organisational psychology and bringing together academic thinking and industry stakeholders to address critical workplace challenges.
Prof Jorritsma spoke about the role of work design and how employers can help generate healthy and productive work at a time of increasing uncertainty and digital transformation.
To watch a video recording of the webinar or read the full transcript, visit Comcare’s website.
