Psych Health and Safety Podcast

In this episode, Australian hosts Jason and Joelle chat with Megan Alderson, Founding Director The Strand Veterinarian and Creator of the Vet Thrive Wellness Programme. Megan speaks about the mental health challenges facing the veterinary industry, and shares details of a program she developed and implemented to improve wellbeing in veterinary practice - and won the HRNZ Supreme Award.

Dr. Benjamin Ostrowski, a Senior Behavioural Researcher at Atlassian, delves into the dynamics of distributed work teams. He discusses how remote work impacts productivity, innovation, and mental health. The conversation highlights the challenges of isolation and time zone differences while strategizing on effective team collaboration. Ostrowski also explores innovative practices, such as 'Ship It teams' from hackathons, showcasing how diverse, distributed teams can outperform traditional setups through flexibility and asynchronous communication.

In this episode, UK hosts Peter and Kate chat with Stavroula Leka, Professor of Organisations Work and Health at Lancaster University. Stavroula shares her recollections from her time as the convenor of the working group for ISO 45003, and offers insights into global policy and legislative changes in relation to psychological health and safety.

In this episode, Australian hosts Jason and Joelle chat with Mike Hagan, HR and WHS Consultant at Mike Hagan Consulting Services. Mike shares insights from his experiences working across Safety and Human Resources to implement psychological health and safety in a large multinational. Key issues and challenges include implementing psychosocial surveys, accessing organisational data, managing resources and capacity, and navigating internal territorial or political issues.

In this episode, UK hosts Peter and Kate chat with Sara Flanagan, Global Wellbeing Director at Boston Consulting Group. Sara shares from her experiences in implementing psychological health and safety internally within professional services firms, both at a national and at a global level.

In this episode, UK hosts Peter and Kate chat with Marc Atherton, Registered Aviation Psychologist and Partner at Allaxa. Marc speaks to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on the aviation industry, shares his views about the relationship between mental health and safety in aviation, and shares insights from the recently published Royal Aeronautical Society Briefing Paper on Psychosocial Risk Management and Mental Health. https://www.aerosociety.com/media/23475/mental-health and-wellbeing-raes-paper.pdf

In this episode Australian hosts Jason and Joelle chat with Dr Brock Bastian, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Melbourne, and Director and Principal Psychologist at Psychological Safety Australia. Brock shares learnings from his research in the fields of organisational culture and leadership, and we chat about the topic of toxic positivity.

In this episode Australian hosts Jason and Joelle chat with Dr John Fitzgerald, Mentally Healthy Work Lead at WorkSafe New Zealand. We explore a research report recently published by WorkSafe examining the role of work factors in suicide. John details the research purpose, methodology, and findings, and shares his key takeaway messages arising from the research. https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/research/work-related-suicide-examining-the-role-of-work-factors-in-suicide/

In this episode, UK hosts Peter Kelly and Kate Field chat with Stuart Mace, Occupational Health and Wellbeing Lead at Skansa. Stuart shares his experiences from working in recruitment, in particular his observations about the role of psychosocial hazards in driving turnover. He reflects on how his experiences in recruiting inform his learning while completing postgraduate qualifications.

In this episode, Australian hosts Jason and Joelle chat with John Chan, an organisational psychologist and Managing Director at Infinite Potential. He shares the latest findings from his ongoing burnout research, including the impact of psychosocial hazards such as job demands, job control, and workplace relationships. He also discusses interesting new areas of research into short work weeks and loneliness, and how these interact with burnout. https://infinite-potential.com.au/the-state-of-burnout-2024