Is NZ ready for psychological risk management?
Since the introduction of the Health & Safety at Work Act in 2016, NZ first focused on the physical risks. This was followed by the occupational health risks which is still front and centre today. We got smacked by COVID which slowed things down a bit… but what we can expect next is managing psychological risks.
Huh?
I’ll explain.
Psychological risk covers in part mental health but also much more. If you reflect on police officers or first responders, what they experience day in day out has its toll. This sits under the ‘health’ part of health and safety.
Now this is the obvious stuff. What about things like working in an environment like doing construction 20 meters up on scaffolding or painting in a prison and being on the receiving end of the colourful inmate dialogue? Or, perhaps working in a place you are not comfortable at all… such as an out-of-town job and you have to stay in crappy accommodation away from the wife / husband and kids. Or maybe something as simple as working with chemicals but you are not given any training or PPE and you are not confident enough to speak up.
Ultimately, psychological health and safety deals with how we think, feel, and behave - the wellness part. I personally do not like the term mental health as it has negative connotations, so I tend to use wellness. Semantics perhaps, however, the power of language can be used to our advantage.
Other examples include:
Excessive workloads
Conflicting demands from supervisors
Lack of employee influence in the workplace
Job insecurity
Poorly organised changes to the workplace
Inadequate communication
Sexual harassment
Discrimination
Violence or fear of harm
And interestingly enough, COVID itself could be added too.