10th of September 2024, 6:32pm
Legislative Council of Victoria, Melbourne
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):
My adjournment is for the Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC in the other place. The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System recommended the establishment of mentally healthy workplaces, promoting good mental health in workplaces and addressing workplace barriers to good mental health. If anyone is entitled to a mentally healthy workplace, it is those charged with caring for our mental health patients.
By a long stretch, nurses are the most employed group of professionals working in the mental health sector. In hospitals and residential and community outreach settings, nurses are the backbone of our public mental health sector. Like many in this place, I recently met with a delegation of those dedicated professionals and listened to harrowing stories of the occupational violence and aggression they face every single day.
The real and constant threat of injury inhibits nurses’ ability to feel safe at work and obviously impacts their mental health. They believe the rise in violence and aggression is partly due to so many experienced staff leaving the sector. Recent graduates with little experience are being sent into understaffed wards to look after patients with acute needs, and it is no wonder that 25 per cent of nursing graduates leave the sector after only 18 months.
Reporting incidents is onerous and time-consuming. Nurses are loath to take time off the ward to fill in forms, potentially leaving other team members to manage a violent patient without appropriate support. Unfortunately this in turn leads to underreporting and gaps in evidence.
The government has committed to implementing a statewide framework to support mentally healthy workplaces. This includes the delivery of psychological occupational health and safety regulations to strengthen Victoria’s occupational health and safety framework. Mental health nurses, who can be subject to abuse and violence in their workplaces on a daily basis, demand to see these regulations enacted. Not having these regulations in place makes it very difficult for someone suffering vicarious trauma from assault to have their matter prosecuted under the current Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, because the act is simply so vague.
So I ask the minister to release the long-overdue psychological occupational health and safety regulations. The government has committed to implementing all of the royal commission recommendations. The least it can do is afford protection to the workers whose very job is to give life to those recommendations.
Written Answer
Received: 14 October 2024
Hon. Danny Pearson
(Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC)
Occupational violence and aggression, where a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in a situation related to their work, is unacceptable. We know that occupational violence and aggression can have a negative impact on a workers’ physical and mental wellbeing.
In line with the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the Government is committed to improving mental health and wellbeing in Victorian workplaces.
Employers have existing obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 2004 to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to the health and safety of workers, so far as is reasonably practicable – this includes risks to psychological health. Employers are required to identify, assess, and control risks to health or safety arising from hazards, including psychosocial hazards, in accordance with the OHS Act and regulations.
WorkSafe Victoria (WorkSafe) currently has a range of guidance and resources available via the WorkSafe website to support employers on how to prevent and respond to psychosocial hazards in the workplace including work-related violence, stress, bullying, fatigue and gendered violence including sexual harassment. WorkSafe’s Psychosocial Advisory Team also supports management and triaging of calls to WorkSafe relating to psychosocial hazards.
The Victorian Government remains committed to introducing proposed Psychological Health Regulations to strengthen Victoria’s occupational health and safety framework and better prevent psychosocial hazards such as occupational violence and aggression. The Government is also developing necessary resources to support implementation of the regulations, including a compliance code and supporting guidance.
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