SafeWork SA and ReturnToWorkSA are offering a free training course to South Australian businesses to help them understand how to protect workers from mental health risks.
Together they have produced the Managing Psychosocial Hazards and Risks in the Workplace course, which is delivered by specialist training provider GPEx.
“The course takes one to two hours to complete and is designed to help equip businesses with the knowledge and practical skills needed to prevent harm associated with psychosocial risks in the workplace,” SafeWork SA said.
“The course also includes practical psychosocial case studies to unpack realistic scenarios from the retail, health care and construction industries.”
The course helps individuals and organisations to:
- identify psychosocial hazards such as high job demands, poor communication, lack of support and workplace bullying
- assess risks to workers’ health and safety
- control the risks with a mix of preventative and reactive measures where possible
- review and monitor the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure psychosocial risks remain well-managed over time.
“Participants are also given access to a suite of handy resources and a certificate of completion at the end of the course,” SafeWork SA said.
Businesses have always had a duty to do what is reasonably practicable to either eliminate, or if not practicable, minimise exposure to psychosocial hazards under the Work Health and Safety Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA).
The new regulations define psychosocial hazard and risk and set out requirements for how to protect workers from them through a consultative risk management approach.
The introduction of these regulations was largely driven by the need to increase awareness and understanding of the significant impact of work-related psychosocial hazards on workers’ health and safety.
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