Psychological Health and Safety in Care Workplaces: 568 Claims, and 32 Per Cent - an Employer Programme
An employer programme for health, aged care and disability services. 28 CPD hours over seven weeks, and you finish with a psychosocial risk management plan for your own workplace.
It starts with a number. Health care and social assistance holds the highest share of bullying and harassment claims of any Australian industry — and the whole-year count was 568 claims. It also holds the highest share of occupational violence claims: 401. In the same Safe Work Australia report, 32.0% of People at Work respondents in that industry said they had been bullied in the past six months. And Safe Work Australia says it itself: claims data ‘vastly underrepresent’ the incidence — 41% of women and 26% of men report workplace sexual harassment over five years, and fewer than one in five (18%) made a formal report.
AND THE SENTENCE THAT TRAVELS WITH THAT GAP, EVERY TIME. IT IS NOT A REASON TO DISREGARD CLAIMS DATA, AND IT IS NOT A REASON TO DISTRUST THE SURVEY. Claims are the expensive tail — 17,600 serious mental health claims nationally, 12.0% of all serious claims, a median 35.7 weeks lost and $67,400 paid, four to five times everything else, and up 161.1% over ten years, the largest increase of any injury group. The survey is the leading indicator that tells you where the hazard is while you can still change it. And the duty applies whether or not anybody ever claims. What the gap means operationally is simple: if your risk picture is built from claims, you are managing the 568 and you cannot see the rest.
Two provisions most employers have not read. Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, in operation since 1 December 2025, say an employer may rely exclusively on information, instruction or training only if NONE of the other control measures is reasonably practicable (reg 15(3)) — and that even in a combination, training must not be the predominant control (reg 15(4)). Training is legally capped. And in New South Wales the workers compensation reforms have been in force since 1 July 2026: psychological injury is compensable only where caused by a ‘relevant event’ — and bullying and excessive work demands are both on that list, contrary to what employers are widely being told. A new exclusive jurisdiction at the Industrial Relations Commission determines ‘relevant conduct’ first.
Twelve modules. Employer and officer duties, and the 54-page model Code in which resilience, mindfulness, wellness, self-care and stress management appear zero times between them · what your own state requires · the data and the business case · identifying and assessing risk with the free People at Work survey · good work design and why an EAP is not a control · bullying and conflict · work pressure, emotional demand and fatigue · occupational violence · sexual harassment and the positive duty · reasonable management action · traumatic events, claims and return to work — where the rate is 79.1% against 91.6% · and the capstone plan.
What this programme deliberately will not do. It is NOT LEGAL ADVICE and completing it makes no organisation compliant with anything. It covers Victoria and New South Wales in detail and names Queensland; it states nothing about Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory or the Commonwealth. It cites no section number for the NSW reforms (the legislation and SIRA guidelines returned HTTP 403), states no element of the Sex Discrimination Act positive duty, and states no item or score from the People at Work survey. It advises on no individual claim, dispute, investigation or diagnosis.
28 CPD hours, measured from the module structure: 1680 minutes across twelve modules inclusive of reading, knowledge checks, workplace tasks and the two live workshops. 12 knowledge checks at 80% to pass with unlimited attempts, eleven workplace tasks, a reflective statement, and a capstone plan assessed against seven criteria. Professional development only — not nationally recognised training. Sources read and counted 28/09/2026. Data: Safe Work Australia (2024, 2025), CC BY 4.0.