Mental Health Workplace Safety Organising Conference 2022

The ACTU Centre for Health and Safety will be hosting a Mental Health Workplace Safety Conference for union organisers, OHS and industrial officials, and educators on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th September 2022 in Melbourne. Registration details below.

The ACTU Centre for Health and Safety in partnership with VTHC will be hosting a Mental Health Workplace Safety Conference for union organisers, OHS and industrial officials, and educators on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th September 2022 in Melbourne.

Register for the conference

Follow the link below to register for the Mental Health Workplace Safety Conference

Register for the conference

Find out more

Click the link below to download the Mental Health Workplace Safety Conference program

Download the program

Featuring:

Prof Sam Harvey

Executive Director & Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute

Prof. Samuel Harvey is a leading academic psychiatrist with international standing in clinical and population mental health research. Originally from Adelaide, Sam initially trained and worked as a GP, before pursuing his passion for mental health and training as a psychiatrist at the internationally renowned Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London. He completed his PhD at the University of London in 2011, and in the decade since has continued to practice as both a clinical psychiatrist and researcher.

Since returning to Australia in 2012, Sam has established new programs of research focused on workplace mental health, models of care for depression, and the overlap between physical and mental health. His research is internationally recognised, with agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) looking to him for advice on how to create more mentally healthy workplaces.

Sam commenced in the role of Executive Director and Chief Scientist with the Institute on 1 November 2021.

Prof Peter Smith

President & Senior Scientist, Institute for Work & Health Toronto

Professor Peter Smith is president and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto, and a Professor at the University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Professor Smith has extensive experience conducting research related to work injury and its consequences using large population-based surveys and administrative workers’ compensation data. His key research interests include: gender and sex differences in the relationship between work and health; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes. His presentation will discuss the impact of employment conditions and the risk of injury at work.

Prof Tony LaMontagne

Professor of Work, Health & Wellbeing, the Institute for Health Transformation & the School of Health & Social Development at Deakin University

Anthony D. LaMontagne is a Professor of Work, Health & Wellbeing at the Institute for Health Transformation and the School of Health & Social Development at Deakin University, in Melbourne. He also holds appointments and affiliations with the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Massachusetts and the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. His broad research interest is in developing the scientific and public understanding of work as a social determinant of health and translating this research into policy and practice to improve workplace and worker health. Tony has a particular interest in the health impacts of insecure work and regularly engages with advocacy work to broaden the understanding of this important determinant of health.

Marie Boland

Reviewer 2018 National Report into Model Work, Health and Safety Laws

Marie Boland is a lawyer and consultant who specialises in work health and safety and industrial relations.  She is the 2021 Inaugural Thinker in Residence, University of South Australia Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory. She completed the 2022 review of the conduct of work health and safety prosecutions in the Australian Capital Territory and importantly, for this conference, the 2018 National Review of the model work health and safety laws in December 2018 (Boland Review).

Prof Maureen F. Dollard

Australian Researcher

Professor Maureen Dollard is an Australian researcher who for several decades has investigated the link between working conditions and worker psychological health. Her research has identified the corporate climate for worker psychological health, corporate values, systems and processes as crucial for understanding the mental health crisis.  Maureen is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Director of the Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory at the University of South Australia and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham. She is the recipient of the 2020 ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Award. Maureen is a foundation member of the NTEU.

Associate Prof Carlo Caponecchia

University of New South Wales

Associate Professor Carlo Caponecchia is an academic at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has a background in psychology and works in human factors and safety. He has particular interest and expertise in psychosocial risks and safe systems of work.

Carlo is a member of the Standards Australia committee on occupational health and safety management and was part of the ISO TC283 working group responsible for the development of ISO45003. He is the current President of the International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment.

Van Badham

Writer & Activist

Van Badham is a writer and activist. She is a columnist for The Guardian with bylines in The New York Times, she is a regular on ABC Statewide and her latest non-fiction book is the best-selling QAnon And On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults. With her partner Ben Davison she hosts the massively successful Australian politics podcast The Week on Wednesday, and she also writes for theatre, film, radio and TV. She is proudly a member of MEAA and the AWG.

Prof Sharon Parker

ARC Laureate Fellow; John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University; Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences; a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology.

ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon K. Parker is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University, Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology.  Sharon’s work has been cited more than 35,000 times and in 2019, Sharon was named among the world’s most influential scientists and social scientists in the Web of Science Group’s 2019 list of 2019 Highly Cited Researchers, and the only female in Australia appearing on this list in the field of Economics and Business. She has published more than 200 internationally refereed articles on topics including work design, proactive behaviour, and job performance. Sharon is the founder of the SMART work design model, cofounder of the Thrive at Work Initiative, and has contributed to policy on work design in Australia, the UK, and the USA.

Dr Tessa Bailey

Registered Psychologist; 2019 Ian Davey Award Winner

Dr Tessa Bailey is a registered psychologist who completed her PhD focusing on lead indicators for worker psychological health and safety, for which she received the 2019 Ian Davey Award for the most outstanding PhD thesis at the University of South Australia. She has experience working in the areas of human resource management, injury preventions, and injury management. In her prior role as a Research Fellow at UniSA Dr Bailey assisted with coordinating the Australian Workplace Barometer project which analysed data on working conditions, worker health, and productivity outcomes for over 7000 workers across Australia. Dr Bailey is Director and Principal Consultant for the OPUS Centre for Psychosocial Risk working with industry partners to design integrated workforce health and safety systems that protect worker health and promote wellbeing.

The conference will be a first for our movement, and focus on:

  • Recent changes to WHS laws and regulations, specifically psych health regulations
  • Using work health and safety to build collective power
  • Sharing stories of worker wins to improve mental health workplace safety
  • Educating on workplace psychosocial risks and control measures

Dates:

Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th September 2022

Location:

Victorian Trades Hall Council, 54 Victoria Street, Carlton South, Vic 3053

How to register:

You need to be logged in to your ATUI account (if you do not have an ATUI account you can first create one quickly and easily at the links below).

To register and pay the registration fee for yourself and/or other participants from your organisation, click here.

If your organisation is paying for your registration, register your interest here.