How good are your return to work (RTW) plans for Psychosocial Injuries?

Worksafe’s (Vic) annual report provided further confirmation of what a number of WHS commentators have already known – that is, our RTW plans for mental health issues are ineffective, or worse keep, our injured employees ‘injured’.

Whilst the reports shows that 82% of workers with physical injuries are returned to work within 2 years (ie most), only 57% of workers with mental injuries successfully return to work during that period which means we nearly ‘flip of the coin’ in terms of success. This begs the question: Are we treating mental health injuries as seriously as we should or did we just severely underestimate the time, effort and expertise necessary to properly deal with them?

It seems that the only real way change will occur is through legislative ‘blunt force’. Currently only WA requires ‘incident notification’ to the regulator for psychosocial injury (ie a full 10 days absence) but on 2 August 2024, Safe Work Australia (SWA) announced that the WHS ministers had accepted recommendations to revise the incident reporting framework of the model WHS Act, including in relation to notification of psychosocial hazards and psychological harm for the harmonised states.

While the specific provisions have not been released, we can expect amendments by early 2025. The notification changes relating to psychosocial hazards are likely to include:

1. requiring the immediate notification of a work-related (or suspected work-related) suicide or attempted suicide of a worker where there are indicators which suggest a potential link to the work or work environment;

2. capturing violent incidents arising out of the conduct of the business or undertaking that may not result in a serious physical injury or illness triggering notification, but that exposes a worker or other person to a serious risk to a person’s physical or psychological health and safety; and

3. capturing serious work-related injuries and illnesses of 15 or more consecutive calendar days due to psychological or physical injury arising out of conduct of the business or undertaking.

Action Items

• Keep watching for legislative change in this area

• Focus ‘an extra effort’ on dealing with mental health RTW plans – the area is definitely harder and more nuanced than managing physical injuries but the ‘payback’ is significant

• Train your managers/supervisors in the ‘subtle art’ of managing psychosocial health – the cookie cutter just got made redundant!

Edge Legal

Relationships. Respect. Results