Mental Health in Workplaces

Mental health is a growing challenge in our workplaces. With the adult population spending about a third of their life at work, workplaces play a fundamental role in protecting, improving and supporting the mental health of Victorians.

In the 2022/23 financial year, 15.6% of all new claims were for a mental injury, up from 15.1% in 2021/22 and 13.1% in 2020/21. Over the next 10 years it is expected that the proportion of mental injury claims will continue to increase.

Positive, mentally healthy workplaces can provide people with fulfilment, purpose and a connection to the community. The importance of mentally healthy workplaces was reinforced by the findings of the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System.

WorkSafe Victoria (WorkSafe), as Victoria's occupational health and safety (OHS) regulator and manager of Victoria's workers' compensation scheme, has an important role in supporting employers to create mentally healthy workplaces, and helping workers recover and return to work.

The below information sets out existing WorkSafe Victoria mental health service offerings.

WorkWell

WorkWell is WorkSafe’s program to support employers to create safe and mentally healthy workplaces.

Established in 2017, WorkWell was initially a $50 million, 5-year government-funded program delivered by WorkSafe Victoria in partnership with the Victorian Department of Health. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of its model, WorkWell is now a continuing as program of activities within WorkSafe.

WorkWell aims to support employers to prevent mental injury and create safe and mentally healthy workplaces. By providing employers with access to resources, the program empowers leaders to make systems-level changes informed by a primary prevention approach to workplace mental health.

Employer Guidance

Housed on a Mental Health Safety Basics landing page, WorkSafe has a range of non-statutory guidance to support duty holders to understand their Occupational Health and Safety obligations in relation to psychosocial hazards including:

• Work-related violence
• Gendered violence including sexual harassment
• Bullying
• Stress
• Fatigue
• Family violence

These foundation pieces of guidance form the basis for all related resources.

OHS Essentials

OHS Essentials is a free workplace safety consultation service, delivered by independent occupational health and safety experts. Available to small and medium business (up to 60 workers) with a WorkCover policy. Primary focus and expertise in physical hazards.

Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations (proposed regulations)

The Victorian Government is currently considering options for the development of the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations (proposed regulations). This includes WorkSafe developing the necessary resources to support implementation including a compliance code and supporting guidance.

The proposed regulations will strengthen the occupational health and safety (OHS) framework and recognise that hazards that pose a risk to psychological health are no less harmful to employees' safety and wellbeing than physical hazards. The proposed regulations aim to promote the importance of psychological health and safety in the working environment.

Purpose of RFI

Some workplaces, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, may have limited awareness, capacity or capability to identify, assess and control risks to mental health. Responses to workplace mental health have traditionally focused on supporting individual workers, without addressing underlying workplace psychosocial hazards that may be negatively impacting on workers’ mental health.

WorkSafe is seeking responses to this Request for Information (RFI) in order to gain a more detailed understanding of the existing and emerging services available in Victoria that assist businesses to identify, assess and control risks to mental health within their workplace.

The RFI responses will be used to map the current capability and capacity within Victoria of organisations that provide such services.

The use of these services may be expanded to supplement those already available in order to assist small and medium-sized employers to create mentally healthy workplaces. Any provision of these services by an external provider would be supported by, and aligned with, existing WorkSafe guidance.