Psych Health and Safety Podcast

In this episode we chat with Niclas Wisen, a military psychologist from Sweden. Niclas discusses the psychosocial hazards that members of the military experience, and describes some of the approaches adopted within the Swedish military to manage psychosocial risk. Some of the strategies described include adopting de-stigmatising language, alignment with physical health terminology, and equipping personnel with the skills to cope with the unique situations experienced during deployment.

In this episode we chat with Clive Lloyd, Psychologist, Principal Consultant at GYST Consulting, and author of "Next Generation Safety Leadership: From Compliance to Care". Clive talks about the impact of fear and trust in the workplace, and describes the undermining effect that active mistrust can have on any improvement initiatives. He describes the research supporting the idea that leader benevolence (i.e. care) makes a significant contribution to psych health and safety outcomes, and suggests a range of practical strategies that leaders can apply to start to build trust and demonstrate care to their workforce.

In this episode we chat with Dr Joti Samra, CEO and Founder of My Workplace Health, and founding member of the CSA Technical Committee that developed the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Dr Joti shares with us her recollections of developing the Guarding Minds at Work framework and the Canadian National Standard. She provides us with a great example of how much work is actually involved in developing an evidence-based framework, and shares her views on why our use of language is so important in talking about psychological health and safety rather than mental health.

In this episode, we chat with Angela Martin, Founder and Principal Consultant of Pracademia, and current Professorial Research Fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania. Angela gives us a comprehensive insight into the challenges small and micro businesses face in implementing psych health and safety strategies and describes some of the significant psychosocial hazards to which small business owners are exposed. Angela then points us to some excellent, free resources available to assist small businesses meet their psych health and safety obligations for their employees, as well as resources designed to support small business owners in practical ways. She also describes how larger businesses can support the psych health and safety of their supply chain providers through simple policy changes, and shares some information about upcoming small business supports currently in development.

In this episode we chat with Jake Field, Chief of Staff for the Maritime Union of Australia. Jake gives us some information about what the MUA does for its members - the things that might not make the cover of the newspaper - and shares his views about the increasing collaborative role of unions in psych health and safety. Jake shares examples of successful consultation and collaboration within organisations, and at a strategic level between government, unions, industry bodies, and regulators.

In this episode we chat with Jennifer Low, Director of Health and Safety and Workers Compensation Policy at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Jen gives us an overview of the different projects ACCI has been involved with in the psych health and safety space, and discusses some of the challenges small businesses have in adopting standards and codes of practice. Jen has also been involved in the Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance, development of new units of competence for the VET sector, and Safe Work Australia's national Return to Work Strategy. She gives us an overview of those projects, current status, and a brief lookahead. Finally we have a chat about the differences in psych health and safety messaging between public health and risk management perspectives, and the implications of the variation in messaging for small business.

In this crossover episode, Jason van Schie makes a guest appearance on Safety on Tap with Andrew Barrett. Jason talks about the distinction between psychological safety and psychological health and safety (did you know they are two completely different concepts?); summarises the differences between Clinical and Organisational psychologists and the roles that both areas of practice play in psychological health and safety; explores the role of the employer in helping employees return to a state of positive mental health; and provides his thoughts on good starting points for organisations who want to improve their approach to psych health and safety.

In this episode we chat with Daniela Masters, Head of Global Health and Wellbeing Programs at Generali Employee Benefits. Daniela brings a unique perspective having insight into a number of multinational organisations, and describes some of the challenges in achieving collaboration between HR and OSH functions within multinational organisations given their size and structural complexity. We discuss the shared responsibility model for employee mental health, and Daniela describes the issue of self-stigma, where individuals are supportive of others seeking mental health help but feel unable or unwilling to do so themselves. We then talk about mental health indicators, and Daniela shares with us some interesting and unexpected data sources.