Psychological Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace Congress

22-23 October 2025, Melbourne

Developing a realistic understanding of your shared responsibilities for psychosocial safety
Organising key avenues for collaboration between safety and people management branches
Generating productive outcomes between service leaders in terms of both prevention and response to psychological injury
Situating other areas of your organisation in relation to your psychological safety response

Anji Head, Senior Manager Health Safety and Wellbeing, University of Sydney

Formulating your psychological safety strategy according to regulator expectations
Understanding the resources and capabilities which can be accessed through regulators
Collaborating effectively with regulators during inspections and investigations
Keeping your relationship with safety regulators appropriate and productive

Narelle Beer, Strategic Safety and Leadership Advisor, Narelle Beer Consulting

Situating psychosocial hazards within the context of the broader workplace
Ensuring your incident response addresses the risks of vicarious trauma
Assessing the long-term risks of secondary injury after a physical safety incident
Treating psychological safety incidents in consideration of potential cumulative exposure

Nicole Fauvrelle, General Manager Health Safety and Wellbeing, Country Fire Authority

Building positive relationships between your employees and their support teams
Ensuring your communications with treating professionals is meaningful and appropriate
Taking appropriate action when working with NTDs is not productive
Supporting an effective recovery process through regular communication with care teams

Associate Professor Caroline Johnson, Academic Specialist Primary Care, General Practice Expert and Practitioner, University of Melbourne

Case Study:
Developing psychological health and safety effectively at Bupa

Developing maturity in your psychosocial safety strategy
Conducting effective psychosocial risk assessments
Utilising available data for effective safety risk management
Producing positive outcomes within an effective Psychosocial Hierarchy of Controls
Supporting your organisational wellbeing with commitment from leadership

Katrina Tsoutsoulis, Psychosocial Safety Lead, Bupa Asia Pacific

Providing resources and training on-site to provide immediate psychosocial support
Engaging key stakeholders within your organisation to harmonise incident procedures
Delegating authority and responsibility to leaders and staff for serious traumatic events
Managing the wellbeing of yourself and your team alongside the injured worker

Nicole Terry, Group Manager Wellbeing Services, Victoria Police

Identifying the most useful skills for creating psychologically healthy workplaces
Developing key mental health skills for supervisors and team leaders
Engaging internal/external partners to provide evidence-based psychological safety training
Addressing feedback on training strategies for effective skills development in future

Irina Tchernitskaia, Manager Psychological Services, Fire Rescue Victoria

Situating your organisational psychosocial risk strategy in the context of current regulations
Highlighting recent prosecutions and cases when updating your mental health approach
Investigating your current psychological safety strategy for potential blind spots
Translating legal expectations into effective psychological safety, beyond compliance

Catherine Dunlop, Partner, Maddocks

Utilising executive support to empower your psychological health and safety programs

Approaching executive leadership teams with mental health strategies productively
Appreciating the role of c-suite leaders as key partners in psychological health and safety
Accessing language and data around psychological wellbeing that resonates with executives
Utilising executive support to empower your psychological health and safety programs

Dr Megan Dobbie, Director Wellbeing Services, Principal Psychologist, Ambulance Victoria

Understanding the risks of high job demands for psychological ill-health
Negotiating potential resources and supports for employees at high risk of burnout
Designing key strategies to ensure early detection of potential burnout
Engaging constructively with overworked employees with a person-centred approach
Revising expectations to balance psychosocial job demands and resources

Rachael Palmer, Manager Change, Department of Health Victoria

Collecting useful information around the current wellbeing culture in your organisation
Organising meaningful interventions for an effective improvement to mental health culture
Creating opportunities for dialogue and connection around psychological wellbeing
Knowing the meaningful indicators of positive mental health within your teams
Strategizing around the results of a cultural intervention based on meaningful feedback

Todd Hopwood, Manager Customer and Business Integrity, Wollongong City Council, and Mental Health Advocate

Implementing key controls to target high-risk areas for OVA incidents
Providing effective support to employees affected by violent and aggressive behaviours
Ensuring supervisors and security staff have key resources and authority to manage OVA
Considering the effects of OVA incidents in relation to other psychosocial stressors

Mia Li, Manager Safety & Wellbeing, 7-Eleven

Constructing effective strategies around the capabilities and vantage of direct supervisors
Allocating training and resources around ‘soft skills’ to commencing line leaders
Tackling the increased psychological strain placed on line leaders supportively
Safeguarding coalface employees from worsening psychological health through supervisor engagement

Managing different types of bullying and harassment appropriately
Ensuring incidents of inappropriate behaviour are reported and addressed
Addressing all involved parties respectfully in accusations of employee misconduct
Taking account of the broader impact of bullying and harassment and your intervention

Assessing relative change readiness for psychological wellbeing strategies in your teams
Collaborating effectively with team leaders to promote buy in for wellbeing strategies
Engaging in sincere conversations and building from employee feedback on mental health projects
Showcasing the benefits of positive change to your executive leaders

Ensuring early intervention into identified risks to minimise injuries
Engaging professionally with alleged psychological injuries
Communicating your willingness to provide mental health support convincingly
Providing a safe environment for psychological injury claimants returning to work