If someone needs help now. If life is in danger, call Triple Zero (000).
Lifeline’s phone number is 13 11 14. Lifeline’s website also offers chat and text.
Two jobs, side by side
Preventing harm from the work
- Whose job
- The person conducting the business or undertaking, as part of its primary duty.
- What it covers
- Psychosocial hazards: the things at work that can harm workers’ mental health, from job demands to bullying.
- Where it is set out
- WHS laws, regulations and codes of practice.
Supporting a person
- Whose job
- The workplace, discussing changes with the person and their support person.
- What it covers
- Reasonable adjustments, flexible arrangements, and help getting to the right support.
- Where it is set out
- Medicare Mental Health points to anti-discrimination law as the basis for reasonable adjustments.
Preventing harm: the legal duty
Safe Work Australia says most jobs involve some psychosocial hazards, the hazards that can harm workers’ mental health, and that under the model WHS laws the person conducting a business or undertaking must manage the risks they create. The model Act defines health as both physical and psychological health, so the primary duty covers psychological health as well. The hazards and the four-step process are set out in psychosocial hazards at work, and the duty itself in the WHS duty of care.
This is also where wellbeing programs sit. Safe Work Australia says initiatives such as meditation classes, or encouraging healthy eating and exercise, can have positive impacts but do not protect workers from harm from psychosocial or physical hazards. Its test is whether a measure prevents harm from the work.
Some of its examples of controls read like a description of a calm floor plan: places where workers can have private discussions, seating teams together so help is easy to get, keeping confidential information secure, and meeting workers’ reasonable needs, such as an accessible workplace.
Supporting a person: adjustments at work
Medicare Mental Health’s page on informing your workplace speaks to workers whose mental health challenges are affecting their work or their relationships with colleagues. It suggests that this may be the right time to talk with the employer, so they can understand what is going on and what they can do to help.
It also points out that anti-discrimination laws apply, and says this means a workplace is required to make reasonable adjustments: changes to a job that help a person keep working effectively, shaped around their particular needs. Its examples:
- Flexible working arrangementssuch as variable start and finish times
- Changes to the taskssuch as swapping one large, demanding project for several smaller ones
- Changes to the work areasuch as moving to a quieter part of the workplace
- Equipmentbuying it, or modifying what is there
Adjustments, it says, should be discussed with the person and their support person before they are made, and it may take a few tries to find what works best. The quieter work area on that list is one reason the rooms on this guide’s plan are drawn lit.
Where support can come from
| Where | What the official page says |
|---|---|
| An employee assistance program (EAP) | A workplace may have one, and it may give access to free professional counselling. Medicare Mental Health calls an EAP a good place to start where there is one. |
| People at work | A manager, human resources, a union, or someone else the person trusts. |
| Medicare Mental Health | Funded by the Australian Government and free, with no GP referral, diagnosis or Mental Health Treatment Plan needed to start. It has local centres, digital programs, and a phone service on 1800 595 212, weekdays 8:30 am to 5 pm, excluding public holidays. |
When an injury or illness is work-related, the way back is its own room on this floor: returning to work. And when the strain comes from how people treat each other, workplace bullying sets out what counts and where it can go.