Awareness, belonging and connection for positive mental health and wellbeing

Awareness, Belonging and Connection is the theme for this year’s Mental Health Week. The week is celebrated annually in October, raising the profile of mental health and wellbeing and helping to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Mental Health Week is an opportunity for all Queenslanders to consider and connect with the people and communities that they rely on to help them be mentally healthy, while serving as a reminder for employers that protecting the psychological health of workers is just as important as protecting their physical health.

While building a mentally healthy workplace makes good business sense, controlling psychological health and safety risks is also a legislative requirement.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has free online events on offer during the week. We shine a light on diversity and inclusion for mentally healthy workplaces, discussing how neurodivergent workers may experience risk at work differently. We also unpack the 2022 Global Burnout Study, and new findings and a roadmap to prevention, as well as featuring a panel session with footy legend Darius Boyd, Justin Geange from Mates in Construction and Connie Galati from the APS Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit talking suicide prevention and the importance of breaking down stigma of mental health.

There is also an opportunity to hear from us and Dr Kirsten Way about what 'reasonably practicable' means, exploring common event-based and cumulative psychosocial hazards and factors and the types of controls you could consider.

Tickets for our World Mental Health Day breakfast event are selling quickly. This event will feature Queensland Mental Health Ambassador Hayley Lewis and an interesting panel discussion dissecting a case study with multiple psychosocial hazards and psychological health issues from different agency and legislative perspectives.

The events are a great way to show your commitment to building mentally healthy workplaces, nurturing your teams' capabilities and improving your organisational awareness of psychological health and safety and early intervention.

Further information

To learn more about the campaign and ways you can support visit Mental Health Week | WorkSafe.qld.gov.au.