I think we tend to lose sight of Work, HEALTH and Safety (WHS). I think most times I was asked to work as a safety advisor was because of my knowledge and skills in the area of mental health. I certainly couldn’t stay working myself in that area for long, I simply burnt out. The only thing that is predictable in mental health support work is that everything is unpredictable, it is in itself a stressful job. I can’t think of many tougher gigs than mental health support work. The drive for writing this article has been stimulated by this work. My role is to facilitate development and learning of the four Managers. Recently I have been asked to provide training and support for a large non-government provider with 120 mental health support workers. When safety people do a ‘hazard hunt’ they are great at seeking out every petty physical factor and yet miss the majority of psychological and cultural factors that really matter in risk. It seems the industry is great at expressing empathy when it perceives physical damage to a person, but when the damage is not visible empathy is hard to come by. There is little education in the safety sector about the psychology of risk, the unconscious in decision making and non-rational drivers of behaviour. The thinking of safety people in particular is mostly in the rational and irrational space, not non-rational (aRational) headspace. Risk and safety professions are preoccupied with workspace, hazards and visible risks. One of the big challenges for risk and safety people in understanding mental health at work is its invisibility. The purpose of this article is to provide some tips for tackling mental health at work, highlight cultural constraints in the risk and safety industry that limit understanding of mental health and, provide links and resources to help better understanding mental health at work. There are some particular challenges that mental health holds for risk and safety people. Understanding, awareness and response to mental health issues at work is challenging. Mental Health, Risk and Safety – Part 1 ( see part 2 here) One of our most popular articles ever! Republished by Request
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