Psychological Injury Management in the Workplace Congress agenda

Conference day one – Wednesday  31 August 2022

Mastering the psychosocial risk management approach for your organisation

• Adjusting your perspective on mental health towards a risk management mindset
• Achieving buy-in at all levels of the organisation for effective risk management
• Adapting your organisational WHS policy to support psychosocial risk management
• Conducting psychosocial risk management according to the specific needs of your team

Tiffany Auvaa, Manager, WHS Strategic Projects, Department of Planning and Environment NSW

Challenging mental ill-health stigma in your frontline organisational culture

• Judging the comfort level of your staff in conversations around mental health
• Engaging your team in mental health discussions openly and honestly
• Setting a safe and respectful tone in ongoing dialogued with your colleagues on the coalface
• Giving your frontline team a sense of ownership and agency over their mental health
• Ensuring employees are at their best when engaging with external stakeholders

Matt Heysmand, Chief Inspector, Manager, Respectful Workplaces, NSW Police Force

Creating better psychological wellbeing programs with noticeable positive effects 

• Addressing the mental wellbeing needs of your staff authentically and efficiently
• Providing holistic support to employees with complex psychosocial vulnerabilities
• Creating a safe environment for employees who have non-work psychosocial stressors
• Achieving employee buy-in on wellbeing, to transform good ideas into good practice
• Supporting your employees to access and engage with your wellbeing programs

Dianne van Berlo, Executive Director Health, Safety, and Staff Wellbeing, NSW Department of Education 

Panel Discussion:
Making your communications meaningful in overcrowded mental health dialogue

• Connecting with your employees in the busy international mental health discussion
• Utilising technology-led strategies to maximise your impact
• Producing efficient messaging and communication to be a mental health leader
• Using focused and emotionally intelligent communication strategies to combat cognitive overload

Shannon Ahern, Group Manager, Health, Safety, and Wellbeing, Redland City Council
COL Andrew Deacon, Commanding Officer, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Department of Defence
Penny Myerscough, National Learning and Wellbeing Manager, Centre for Corporate Health

Achieving executive buy-in for mental health and safety programs in a low-resourcing environment

• Engaging key stakeholders in your organisation effectively
• Communicating the long-term costs of psychological injury for an organisation
• Tailoring your presentation strategy for executives to “speak their language”
• Communicating how your mental health proposal complements and improves past and present initiatives
• Budgeting your psychological safety programs effectively within a ‘zero harm’ culture

Shannon Ahern, Group Manager, Health, Safety, and Wellbeing, Redland City Council

Practical tips for managing psychological injury risk in the workplace – a non-mental health professional’s perspective

• Developing an evidence-based psychological safety framework for the specific needs of your organisation
• Communicating the benefits of your targeted safety framework to key organisational stakeholders
• Minimising injury risks using a combination of training, everyday management, and counselling
• Producing a mentally healthy organisational culture of self-care and mutual vulnerability

COL Andrew Deacon, Commanding Officer, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Department of Defence

Afternoon Tea

Improving your psychological safety and wellbeing outcomes according to constantly updating legal standards

• Considering regulatory changes which require review of your current WHS policies
• Mitigating the impact of a changing world on the scope of existing regulations
• Understanding your responsibilities in WHS within the differing remit of laws, regulations, and standards
• Creating psychological safety systems according to ethical and legal best practice

Catherine Dunlop, Partner, Maddocks

Case Study: A journey to implement best-practice WHS strategy to manage psychosocial hazards, starting with senior leadership

• Evaluating the advantages and risks of focusing your WHS strategy on executive and senior leaders in early stages
• Prioritising and tailoring your approach based on unique risk profiles
• Positioning your senior leadership team as accountable responsible WHS change agents
• Tailoring your controls and action plan according to the risk profile of your workforce
• Exploring other diverse methods for psychological health and safety initiatives in your organisation

Jessica Falconer, National Work Health and Safety Manager, Aware Super
Hanna Dunstan, Senior Manager, Member Administration Solutions, Aware Super

Conference day two – Thursday 1 September 2022

Minimising overwork and burnout within an increasingly hazardous mental health environment

• Recognising common indicators of psychological burnout in your team
• Adjusting your performance management approach in emotionally challenging times
• Supporting your employees to rest and recover effectively outside office hours
• Improving your communication and leadership strategies for a psychologically safe office environment

Laura Kirby, Chief Mental Health Officer, Commonwealth Bank

Managing secondary injury and complex psychological injuries

• Accounting for the psychosocial vulnerability of already-injured workers
• Avoiding secondary psychosocial hazards during the return-to-work process
• Modifying your psychological injury management approach to account for complex claims

Melanie Ianssen, Head of Rehabilitation, Australia Post

Making efficient use of lessons learnt in psychosocial risk management for remote workers

• Adapting your remote work policy according to the workflow of each employee
• Ensuring employees feel welcome no matter where they work
• Adjusting your WHS approach to suit the hazards of each professional workspace
• Integrating tools and insights from the remote work revolution into your organisation safely

Maree Riley, Organisational Psychologist, Australian Antarctic Division

Case Study: Serco’s approach to preventing psychological injuries 

• Creating informed, person-centred WHS strategies supported by frontline management
• Ensuring line managers know their responsibilities in psychological injury management
• Supporting your line managers to destigmatise mental health in their team
• Ensuring long-term outcomes for psychological safety training in your coalface leadership

Finau Vucago, Wellbeing Manager, AsPac, Serco

Lunch

Case Study: Developing an evidence-based, integrated mental health strategy to thrive at work

• Utilising the Thrive model developed by the Centre for Transformative Work Design (Curtin)
• Developing an integrated mental health and wellbeing strategy for large and complex organisations
• Focusing on the importance of a wholistic HR approach including SMART work design
• Sharing early results and learnings from your evidence-based program

Tanja Watson, a/g Assistant Secretary People Division, Capability, Planning and Change Branch, Department of Agriculture, Farms, and Fisheries

Jessica Reynolds, Director, Work Health and Safety, Department of Climate Change, Environment, and Water
Professor Sharon Parker, Director, Centre for Transformative Work Design, Curtin University

Ensuring long-term effectiveness for your psychological safety training & development

• Providing every member of your team with meaningful tools for positive mental health
• Understanding the benefits and limitations of common WHS tools and strategies
• Ensuring psychological safety skills are retained through regular review
• Moving from compliance to competence in organisation-wide psychological safety training

David Gaul, Health and Safety Coordinator (Manager), Wyndham City Council

Improving your psychological wellbeing strategy with peer support programmes

• Supporting your workforce with colleague-to-colleague support mechanisms
• Creating programmes to promote support networks and trust within your organisation
• Empowering your employees to support one another voluntarily
• Maintaining appropriate distance and support for your peer support volunteers

Alexandra Mitchell, Trauma Programs Manager, People and Culture, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Measuring the effectiveness of psychological injury management and wellbeing programs in your organisation

• Including diverse sources of feedback in your WHS reports
• Collecting accurate and useful data in assessing the wellbeing of your team
• Analysing information on psychological wellbeing thoughtfully and effectively
• Encouraging your team to be imaginative in their collection and analysis of data
• Presenting your learnings to key stakeholders
• Utilising data on past programs to inform future safety initiatives

Caroline Howe, Occupational Rehabilitation Manager, Transport for NSW