Why Wellbeing Whitewash Won't Work: What Psychological Health and Safety Really Means for OS

WHY WELLBEING WHITEWASH WON’T WORK:
WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH & SAFETY
REALLY MEANS FOR OSH
Dr Rebecca Michalak
People Performance & Psychosocial Risk Analyst
@drbecs @psychsafe
@AIHS_OSH @YSP_Aust #AIHSinNSW #NSWsafetysymp2019
#wellbeingwhitewash #psychhazards #psychosocial
#riskmngt #workstress #letwellbeinggooooo

TODAY’S MASTERCLASS
1. SCENE SETTING: Why is psychological health and safety on the radar? Micro & macro
“economics”, industry & external triggers, and psych injury trends
2. CAUSES OF WORKER POOR MENTAL HEALTH: Integrated, psychosocial risk factors &
hazards perspective, the problem with wellbeing, & risk mngt fails
3. PRINCIPLES & MODELS: Stress theories and models, demands vs. resources, and why
wellbeing whitewash won’t work
4. PSYCH INJURY CAUSAL MECHANISMS: Research findings on work-related hazard
exposure levels and hazard exposure consequences, and cases in point
5. WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REALLY MEANS FOR OSH: Primary duty
of care, harm prevention, proactive hazard identification, and tiered risk management
Why wellbeing whitewash won’t work I AIHS NSW Symposium
Sydney, NSW I 12 September, 2019 © R T Michalak I PsychSafe Pty. Ltd.

SCENE SETTING
Why is psychological health and safety on the radar? Micro & macro
“economics”, industry & external triggers, and psych injury trends

SCENE SETTING – MACRO & MICRO ECONOMICS
Global Burden of Disease
by YLD (Depression [rank:
1] & Anxiety [rank: 4])
$AU1.46 trillion pa
Majority of adults
employed, majority of
non-sleeping / personal
care time at work
Role of workplace in
GBD?
Collective wellbeing cost:
$211b pa, 12% of GDP
(FH-Index, 2017)
Mental Health
Productivity Inquiry:
economic and social
participation and productivity
benefits
WHS Strategy 2012-22:
mental health conditions key
priority area; prevalence,
impacted workers, known
prevention options; 30%  in
serious injuries (5+ days LTI)

SCENE SETTING – INDUSTRY & EXTERNAL TRIGGERS

 Psych injury stats:
 longest time off (median 16 weeks; next is 12.6 for nerve / spinal cord damage)
 highest comp payout
 More than 2 x’s as expensive (median $345K; next is $166K for biological
factors); 20% $500K+
 Only 13% of all claims, but 37% of all claim costs (Comcare: 6% and 17%)
 Psych injuries (type = mental disorders; ‘disease’ cf mechanism = mental stress) the
only disease to show no improvement (0 & -1%) in serious claims data 2000–01 and
2014–15; mean decreases of 17 and 15% for injuries and diseases, respectively);
despite tightenings of Casual Connection Test
 Psych injury deaths (suicides; self-harm) not included in Worker Comp fatality stats
SCENE SETTING – PSYCH INJURY TRENDS

SCENE SETTING – PSYCH INJURY TRENDS (TYPE)
Source: Aust WC Stats 2015-16 SWA

SCENE SETTING – PSYCH INJURY TRENDS (MECHANISM)
Source: Aust WC Stats 2015-16 SWA

 Associated insurance concerns
 Professional indemnity claims (task performance errors)
 Insurers ‘eyes wide shut’ over attitude of “insurance as risk management plan”
 Push-back on claimants; Peetz - Causal Connection Test too extreme
 SCE punishes ‘everyone’; little benefit for any strategy that does not
prevent harm
 TPD claims: Self-selecting out of workforce then claiming TPD via life insurance
/ income protection schemes; no need to pass Casual Connection Test
 $1.5 billion loss over 4 years
 Emerging issues:
 Insurance covering OSH breaches, not just litigation costs
 Industrial Manslaughter: Suicide & fatal self-harm
SCENE SETTING – PSYCH INJURY TRENDS

CAUSES OF WORKER POOR MENTAL HEALTH
Integrated, psychosocial risk factors and hazards perspective, risk mngt
fails, and key problems with wellbeing

PSYCHOSOCIAL RISK FACTOR / HAZARD CATEGORIES
(HANDOUT)
Work
Context
(Where Work is
Done)
Individual
differences
(Worker)
Work
Content
(Type of Work
and How
Much)

TIERED RISK MANAGEMENT
Primary
Prevention
(Prevent Harm)
 Aims to identify and remove / reduce risks
prior to them leading to symptoms / problems
Secondary
Intervention
(Intervene Early)
 “Rescue management”; early intervention
applied as soon as issue identified to attempt to
minimise negative consequences & avert any
catastrophe that a failure to act might lead to
Tertiary
Intervention
(Support
Recovery)
 “Clean up the mess”; Aimed at ending
or resolving the problem situation &
effectively dealing with (i.e. fully
resolving) its negative effects

FLAWED RISK MANAGEMENT
“WAHOO – THIS THING HAS GOT WELLBEING AIRBAGS!!!!”

KEY PROBLEMS WITH WELLBEING
It’s a public health message approach
 Promoting mental health awareness, including encouraging disclosures and reducing
(existing) mental health condition stigma and discrimination
 Emphasises ‘self-care’ and other-care, including ‘spot an unwell worker’
 (Mis)Framing standard employment (FWA) entitlements as ‘wellness benefits’, e.g.,
sick leave, flexible working arrangements, job security, and ‘work-life balance’
 Individually-orientated (onus is on worker; not PCBU – aka ‘worker as the problem’)
 Focus is building resources (e.g., resilience, mindfulness; “Rescue management”)
 Organisational causes and interventions largely ignored
 Plethora of more effective (preventative) interventions under- or not utilised,
AND……..

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH WELLBEING?
It is being used in lieu of developing and implementing an effective psychosocial hazard
and risk factor risk management strategy (per OSH obligations)
WELLBEING ≠ RISK MANAGEMENT

A TYPIFIED WELLBEING POLICY

PRINCIPLES & MODELS
Stress theories and models, demands v. resources, and why wellbeing
whitewash won’t work

STRESS THEORIES & MODELS
 The Guide: Job Demands v. Resources
 Other :
 Selye's Theory - General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
 Lazarus & Folkman’s Transactional Theory of Psychological Stress (TTPS) (More useful!)
 Allostatic Load
 Conservation of Resources & Energy Depletion
 Effort-Reward Imbalance…….

JOB DEMANDS V. RESOURCES
D R
D
D
R
R
<
>

PSYCH INJURY CAUSAL MECHANISMS
Research findings on work-related hazard exposure levels and hazard
exposure consequences, and cases in point

PSYCH INJURY CAUSAL MECHANISMS
Source: COMCARE SCHEME—WORKERS’COMPENSATIONSTATISTICS2016–17

BULLYING & HARASSMENT HAZARD EXPOSURE LEVELS
 Levels of exposure (in last 12 months) to five different poor interpersonal behaviour
(work context) hazards suggests these hazard exposures are culturally pervasive:
 incivility (74 – 93%), tends to have a cumulative effect;
 interpersonal deviance (58 – 67%);
 mistreatment (94%);
 Bullying 5 – 18.3% depending on the type of bullying experienced; bullying via
destabilisation behaviour most common (national definition adopted)
 About half (47.2 – 59.1%) all respondents were exposed to some form of sexual
harassment risk; the most common type being gender-harassment #MeToo

HAZARD EXPOSURE IMPACTS
Hazard exposure significantly negatively affects
attitudes, wellbeing / mental health (GHQ-12), & job performance
 Emotional Wellbeing
 Psychological Wellbeing
 Psychosomatic Health Wellbeing
 Organisational Commitment
 Job Satisfaction (extrinsic, intrinsic, overall)
 Organisational Citizenship Behaviour
 Physical Health Symptoms
 Substance Use / Abuse
 Anxiety and Depression
 Social Dysfunction
 Loss of Confidence
 High-level Absenteeism (10+ days)

HAZARD EXPOSURE IMPACTS
Coping DID NOT reduce (mediate) adverse direct effect worker
psychological and psychosomatic health wellbeing
“The damage is already done”
Step away from the Wellbeing (Resources) Cookie Jar

WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REALLY MEANS FOR OSH
Primary duty of care, harm prevention, proactive hazard identification,
and tiered risk management (not wellbeing whitewash)

PRIMARY DUTY OF CARE
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10 (Section 19)
A Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) has a primary duty of care to
ensure, so far is reasonably practicable, that workers (employees contractors,
volunteers) in the workplace are not exposed to health and safety risks.
NOTE: Workers also have a duty to take reasonable care that their acts or omissions
do not adversely affect the health and safety of others *Accessorial liability?*
 An injury does not need to occur for the PCBU and or its Officers to be considered
“negligent” (So the wellbeing approach of building resources so they can be
deployed after hazard / risk factor exposure is…….?)

PSYCHOSOCIAL HAZARD EXPOSURE REPORTING
The majority (87.5 – 89.8%) of mistreated workers do not report their experiences,
suggesting organisational ‘cultures of silence’ are widespread
Organisation (proudly): “We don’t have any issues, we haven’t had a single bullying
complaint in the last 12 months…..”

HIERARCHY OF CONTROL
CONTROL
Hazard / Risk
Factor Category
ELIMINATE SUBSTITUTE ENGINEER
CONTROLS
ADMIN
CONTROLS
PPE
The Worker
Work Done & How
Much
Where Work is
Done

TIERED RISK MANAGEMENT
CONTROL
Hazard / Risk
Factor Category
PREVENT HARM INTERVENE
EARLY
SUPPORT RECOVERY
(RTW)
The Worker
Work Done & How
Much
Where Work is
Done

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS WELCOME
Dr Rebecca Michalak
Twitter: @psychsafe @drbecs
M: +61 400 720 752
r.michalak@psychsafe.com.au
www.psychsafe.com.au

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