25 November 2020
Did you know that because workplaces haven’t tackled mental health like other health and safety issues, workplace mental health injuries are now the fastest growing type of workplace injury in Australia?
Just like physical hazards, such as slippery surfaces, workplaces can also contain mental health hazards, like high workloads. Workplaces need to manage and prevent mental health hazards the same way they do for physical hazards.
Workers can experience isolated work when they find it difficult to get help or assistance from other people because of the location, unsociable hours and shifts, or work that requires them to work alone.
While most of us can identify physical health and safety hazards, we find it much more difficult to see the mental health hazards in our own workplaces.
Mental health hazards can have a major impact on individuals, but they also affect everyone in the workplace through high staff turnover, reduced productivity and increased sick and stress leave.
That’s why a joint initiative between unions and employers has seen the launch of the Mind Your Head campaign -
www.mindyourhead.org.au - to help workplaces improve their workplace mental health systems and practices.
When you sign up, you’ll access important information on how you can identify workplace mental health hazards and receive resources and tools you can use to address them.
The ANMF objective is the prevention of work-related stress amongst nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing.
Nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing have a right to a safe and healthy workplace environment and to perform their work without psychological and physical health risks from work-related stress.
Together, let’s take action to protect workplace mental health.