Safe Work Australia psychological health and safety report shows mental health time lost a big concern

The following in an abridgement of an article originally published by the NSCA Foundation.

Report Findings

A report published by Safe Work Australia in February 2024, on the impact of work-related psychological injuries in Australia, brought to light the costly impact of psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

As a baseline, the report hightlights that 2 in 5 Australians had experienced a mental health condition at some point in their lifetime, based on data collected in 2020-22. Furthermore, while contributing a relatively small proportion of work-related injuries (9% of serious claims in 2021-22), the indexed number of cases is growing rapidly over the previous 13 years, while non-mental health conditions have remained nearly constant over the same period.

The most salient findings of the report is that time lost from work for the median mental health injury subcategory was over 4 times greater than the median across all injuries and diseases, with an equivalent disparity in compensation paid.

Equally significant was the finding that mental health condition claims saw far poorer rates of return to work than the average return to work rate across all conditions. Specifically, individuals claiming time lost due to mental health conditions returning at a rate of only 79%, while the average across all injuries or diseases is marked at a nearly 92% return rate. Furthermore, 44% of individuals that do return to work, after time lost due to mental health condition claims, required additional time off in 2021 - compared to a rate of only 24% requesting additional time off for other injury types.

New psychosocial risk management team talks released

The Australian Government's Comcare has made a series of videos and guides to serve as tools to help managers discuss good work design with their teams to achieve psychologically safer work environments. The topics covered are linked below:

• Addressing work demands
• Knowing your team
• Building trust in your team
• Supporting your team
• Effective communication
• Enhancing performance
• Providing flexible work
• Managing change at work
• Managing absence

Comcare is a government regulator, workers’ compensation insurer, claims manager and scheme administrator. They collaborate and partner with other schemes and organisations on research and innovative projects that improve outcomes, such as the resources cited above.

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Sources

SWA report highlights trends in workplace mental health by NSCA Foundation, March 7th, 2024

Good work design team talks now available by Comcare, March 13th, 2024

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