Welcome to our On Series webcast
for Queensland stakeholders,
proudly brought to you
by the Office of Industrial Relations.
Today's webcast is about the effects
workplace violence has on return to work.
We have Michael O'Hanlon from Beyondblue
here to tell tell us about workplace violence
and its effects.
OIR are committed to driving initiatives
across the work across the workers compensation scheme
that improves safety, well-being,
and return to work outcomes
for both employers and workers.
Michael, our presenter today,
has over 20 years experience
in operational and management roles
in the mining and information technology business.
For the past 10 years,
Michael has worked at Beyondblue,
an independent not for profit organisation
working to increase awareness and understanding
of anxiety, depression, and suicide.
His current role as Workplace Engagement Manager
combines his professional and personal experience
of depression and anxiety to advocate to corporations,
industry associations, and peak bodies
about the benefits of improving mental health
in the workplace.
We are pleased to have Michael share this research
about workplace violence
and the effects it has in the workplace
and for workers returning to work.
- [Michael] Thank you Mary Ann,
and welcome to today's webinar
which will focus on mental health and workplace violence.
The aim of the webinar is to provide
an overview or an introduction to the topic,
rather than a deep dive.
I'll provide links on each of the slides to resources
that will enable you to source additional information
according to your own individual needs.
A clear reference that I'll be using today
is the Heads Up website,
which is a resource developed by
Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance and Beyondblue.
The Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance
is a collation of government, business,
and the mental health sector
all coming together to promote
mentally healthy workplaces,
and you can see all the members on the slide there
in front of you.
So let's have a look at what we'll be covering
in the webinar.
There's the agenda for today.
It's a quick review of what is workplace violence,
what's the impact,
looking at some of the risk factors,
and then how to we manage the impact
of workplace violence on mental health,
and considerations about return to work,
and then some more details around
where you might like to start.
So, what is workplace violence?
There's different definition here from Safe Work Australia
that it's any incident where a person is abused,
threatened, or assaulted in circumstances arising out of,
or in the course of work.
Directed at the person
or as a result of witnessing violence.
And some industries in particular,
like first responders, correctional services,
or health and aged care sectors,
are the most likely to be exposed to workplace violence.
However, it's important to remember
it can actually happen in any industry and any workplace.
It covers a broad range of actions and behaviours
that create a risk to the health and safety of all workers,
so the risk to the health and safety
is an important consideration.
And there you can see
some of the kind of actions and behaviours,
biting, spitting, punching, pushing,
throwing objects,
verbal assaults,
aggravated assault,
any for of indecent physical contact,
and threatening someone with a weapon
or armed robbery.
So that's quite a simple high level definition.
The impact of workplace violence
can be seen in a number of different ways.
You can see here a list of possible impacts,
distress, anxiety, panic attacks, or sleep disturbance,
which are more on psychological level.
Physical illnesses, muscular tension, headaches,
reduced work performance,
which highlights that this is not just an individual issue,
but it's also a wider organisational issue as
more people exposed to workplace violence,
the greater the impact on the organisation itself.
Individuals can suffer a loss of self-esteem
and feelings of isolation,
deteriorating relationships.
They may experience depression.
And at the extreme end,
there may be an increased risk of suicide.
So let's have a look at some of the risk factors
for workplace violence.
So there's two categories.
There's one that's classified as external
or intrusive risk factors
for workplace violence,
and this occur where a person
who has no connection to a workplace,
and their main objective
is to obtain cash or other valuables.
So clearly it happens most likely in specific industries
such as retail, security, finance, cash handling,
transport and logistics, and hospitality.
So then you can see some of the risks in these industries
as working alone or an isolated area,
or only with a few workers on site,
at night or outside normal business hours,
in unpredictable environment.
where you don't have control all the time on what's happening.
Will you may be communicating fact-to-face with customers?
And showing people, for instance,
real estate property, or goods or services,
handling cash, drugs, or other valuables.
So it's where there's an external risk.
The other type of workplace violence risks
are associated with
client
associated factors.
So this involves a person in the care of an organisation
or someone seeking a service from an organisation.
Again, you can look at industries
such as hospitality, healthcare, disability, education,
emergency services, police, prisons,
welfare and community services.
And the risk there are
providing care to people who are in distress,
afraid, ill, or incarcerated.
So, the people you're dealing with
are under stress themselves.
The service methods can cause frustration,
resentment, or a misunderstanding
leading to the individual to respond violently.
You could be providing services to people,
have an unreasonable expectation
of what an organisation or employee can provide them.
Where you're involved in enforcement activities,
carrying or having access to drugs,
handling cash or valuables,
or working alone in an isolated area.
So that's a quick summary of workplace violence
and some of the risk factors,
and as I mentioned, one on each slide there,
you'll see some links
to where you can find more information.
So let's have a look at managing the impact
of workplace violence on mental health,
and some of the considerations around return to work.
In principle, managing the impact of workplace violence
on mental health in the workplace
is the same as for any other mental health condition.
So we're really talking about how you might manage
a mental health condition in the workplace
where workplace violence is the trigger.
First of all, as always,
you need to address the potential workplace sources,
respond to the violence complaint,
support the individual
who may have a mental condition working,
resulting from a workplace violence incidence.
If you can help in them stay at work,
because staying at work
can play a vital role in the person's recovery
by improving their quality of life,
giving structure to day-to-day life,
contributing to sense, and meaning, and purpose,
and promoting opportunities for social inclusion
and support.
You might recognise some of those
are very similar to
someone staying at work from a physical injury,
rather than isolating them at home.
Now if we look at returning to work in particular,
there are some barriers that could get in the way
from workplace violence.
The common mind is that people fear
that colleagues may find out about the diagnosis,
and then have negative reactions to them.
So the fear of what others will think.
There's a fear of lost connection
with workers and co-workers,
a lack of support and understanding
from employers and managers.
And this can be perceived or actual.
If you are in a stress situation,
you may have an impression that this is the case,
or as I said, it might actually be
that the employer or manager
doesn't have an insight to
what barriers could be there returning to work.
Not sure about the levels of support available; Stigma,
the big barrier to do with mental health conditions.
Again, it goes back to what will people think.
And concerns about what work-related contributors
to the stress and anxiety in the first place
have not been addressed.
So has the issue relating to workplace violence
being addressed.
What other things you might like to consider
around legislative and regulatory obligations.
Work health and safety and the bullying
at the top and bottom of this slide,
I think it pretty well covered and pretty well understood.
The two areas in the middle I like to highlight.
That's discrimination.
Anyone experiencing mental health condition,
be it from a incident of workplace violence,
is entitled to reasonably practical adjustments
from their employees,
under the disability discrimination act.
So, managers, employees need to be aware of that.
From an employee's perspective,
the employees still need to be able to
fulfil the inherent requirements of the job.
Privacy is another interesting area,
in that a manager or anyone who
an individual has disclosed that they may be experiencing
a mental health condition too,
are obliged under the Privacy Act
not to disclose that to anybody else,
except in the case where the individual
may have risk of self-harm or harming others.
And they can only disclose the information
with the individual's consent,
and only for the purposes of,
for instance, making reasonable adjustments,
or whatever the agreement is.
So there's a quick look at workplace violence
and the causes, what it is, and some of the impacts.
I mentioned to look at Heads Up,
and this will give you a good idea
where you might start to do a deeper dive.
Workplace violence is part of a broader environmental factor
in a workplace.
If you have workplace violence,
have a look at what else could be happening
in your workplace.
Is your workplace a mentally healthy workplace?
Does it foster a positive workplace culture?
Does it manage stress
and other risks to mental health
as under the Occ Health and Safety Act?
Does it support people with mental health conditions?
And does the organisation
take a zero tolerance approach to discrimination,
harassment, and violence?
So looking at this in a holistic sense,
it's actually a culture within the organisation
of which workplace violence
may be one particular risk factor.
And if you have a look at the Heads Up website.
It's a central point for information for all workplaces,
simple free practical resources.
So there's free booklets you can download,
videos, online training
for anyone at any particular level in an organisation,
and there's an action plan tool there
that can help you step through
some of the things you might want to look at,
undertaking in your workplace
to improve workplace mental health.
Here's a range of other information
that you may want to have a look at.
We've recently released a particular resor-
sorry, resource for health services,
and it looks at including workplace violence.
Similarly, we've developed one for
police and emergency services.
There's, WorkSafe Victoria has an excellent
website on health and safety topics
under occupational violence,
and SafeWork Australia also has some information
around workplace violence.
So as I said, that was a quick summary over the topic,
rather than a deep dive.
I hope you found it useful.
By all means, get in there and have a look.
You can contact Heads Up,
or I'm sure you can contact WorkSafe Queensland
if you want more information.
Thank you for your time.
-Thanks Michael for your expertise
and the work that Beyondblue do for everyone.
Heads Up continue to do
a tremendous job in providing research,
strategy, and support on workplace violence
and return to work outcomes.
If you'd like further information,
visits the Heads Up website,
or visit our website at worksafe.qld.gov.au.
Thank you.