The State of Affairs: A comprehensive look at psychological injury and work-related mental health claims in the Healthcare & Social Assistance industry.

We are pleased to announce the new date for the event: Tuesday 15 November.

Having a healthy and thriving workforce is critical in the Healthcare and Social Assistance (H&SA) area – aged care workers, disability workers, and other professionals in this sector carry out some of the most important work in our society. Yet, the H&SA industry is facing a serious crisis, with deteriorating mental health and increasing psychological injury amongst its workforce. To begin to address this challenge, we need a clear and comprehensive picture of work-related mental health claims and risk factors for psychological injury within this industry.

Join us at this informative in-person breakfast event, where Professor Alex Collie from Monash University, and the Healthy Working Lives Research Group, will present findings from the latest and most comprehensive analysis of psychological injury claims in the NSW H&SA industry. Following the presentation, a panel of industry representatives will unpack the research findings and provide their perspective and insights from the ground.

Event attendees will:

• have a unique opportunity to ask the industry and research panel members questions and make sense of how the findings fit into their own sector and context
• gain insight into the current state of psychological injury and work-related mental health claims data and associated risk factors in the H&SA industry, as well as evidence-base practice for developing mentally healthy workplaces
• understand what the results mean for the future of the H&SA industry, what can be done to build your workforce’s capacity to create mentally healthy workplaces for carers and frontline workers

Cost

Free event with full sit-down plated breakfast included. Supported by icare NSW

Who should attend

Senior leaders, Human Resource Managers, People and Culture specialists, mental health/ organisational change professionals, and related stakeholders of the NSW H&SA industry.

Keynote speaker

Professor Alex Collie

Professor Alex Collie is Director of the Healthy Working Lives Research Group and Co-Director of the Division of Health Services Systems and Policy, in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. He is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2020 to 2024) and a Churchill Fellow.

Alex is an applied public health and social policy researcher. His research focuses on work disability benefit and personal injury compensation systems and their impact on the work, social and health outcomes of injured and ill people.

His research career has been at the border of academia, government and industry. He has moved between these settings but maintained a focus on developing and using evidence to support decision making, develop policy and implement programs to improve health, work and social outcomes.

Alex currently leads multiple large projects funded by industry, government and competitive research grants. He has a PhD in psychology. He has published more than 220 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and technical reports.

Contributor

Dr Asmare Gelaw

Asmare Gelaw is a Research Officer at the Healthy Working Lives Research Group. He is currently conducting research on psychological injury among workers compensation claims. He completed a BSc degree in physiotherapy in 2009 and an MSc degree in clinical physiotherapy in 2013 from University of Gondar in Ethiopia. He has a PhD from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University. His doctoral research focused on chronic physical health conditions following serious orthopaedic injury.

About the Design for Care project

This public event is presented by the SMART Design for Care research project. The research aims to understand and improve workplace mental health and well-being in Australia’s H&SA industry by developing evidence-based preventative interventions. SMART Design for Care is led by Curtin University in collaboration with University of Sydney, Monash University and a range of industry partner organisations. The research is funded by icare NSW.