Proactive
Management of
Mental Health in
the Resources
Sector
Denise Goldsworthy – Managing Director
Rio Tinto Dampier Salt & HIsmelt
APOSHO 26 Australasian Safety Conference 2011
Background
•
Rio Tinto provides support for existing employees and their
families when suffering from a mental illness through a
range of policies.
•
‘The Way We Work’ sits at the centre of policy, and ensures
that all people are given opportunities for training and
success in their role, free of discrimination and harassment.
•
The strategy to date has been primarily reactive.
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Proactive Management of Mental Health in the Resources
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Mental wellness as an objective
•
Mental wellness by comparison is a new consideration.
•
Mental health:
•
can significantly affect safety, employment costs and productivity, both
directly and indirectly;
•
is a continuum, ranging from healthy, through a range of debilitation to
an individual who has become essentially dysfunctional;
•
some illnesses are temporary, while others are lifelong.
•
With many causes and symptoms, need to establish an approach
that has the flexibility to deal with an infinite range of situations.
•
We recognise that our employees may suffer stress or reduced
resilience due to the challenges of work, family and modern day life.
This reduced resilience can impact their ability to cope with genetic
or environmental factors that can result in mental illness.
•
Rio Tinto therefore recognises the benefits of improving the health
and mental wellbeing of our workforce by broadly and proactively
considering both the organisational and the individual approach to
determinants of health and mental wellbeing.
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The aim:
•
Through a mental health strategy (MHS) enable a much
more holistic approach to mental health care which is
integrated into corporate policies, practices and structures,
and complements existing training programs.
•
This process is NOT about:
• Awareness without support
• Training without changing the business processes
• Diagnosis and rehabilitation without changing the
causes
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The four guiding principles:
•
Prevention – maintaining personal health and an effective
work/life balance
•
Promotion – awareness of mental health issues and
support services available
•
Protection – against organisational factors that increase
risk to mental health
•
Intervention – providing adequate and appropriate access
to support services
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The Expectation:
•
The workplace will be much more “mental health friendly”,
employees will be well versed about mental health issues,
employees can better access support when needed, and
mental health problems in workmates can be better
recognised.
•
The pilot
Dampier Salt Limited (DSL) - Lake MacLeod participate
in an initial intervention development program with the
view to full implementation over a three year period from
2011
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Target Condition:
Develop a holistic mental health strategy that incorporates the
following:
•
Education and awareness around mental health issues
•
Appropriate training for key medical and human resources
personnel
•
Fatigue Management Program
•
Health Risk Assessments (addressing mental and physical health)
•
Leadership Program
•
Employee Assistance Program
•
Policies concerning:
– Fitness for Work
– Bullying and Harassment
– Discrimination
– Performance Management
– Annual leave, special leave etc
– Cultural Awareness
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Target Condition (cont’d):
•
Increase awareness, promotion and utilisation of existing support
services (internal and external)
•
Develop a measurement and monitoring process to determine
effectiveness of the strategy
•
Reduce the stigma associated with the term ‘mental health’ by
creating a health friendly workforce that is aware of elements and
support for mental health and is not afraid to talk about it or seek
assistance
•
Integrate with the existing Health and Wellness Program and
‘Active Caring Culture’ (address mental and physical health)
•
Identify workplace organisational issues that increase the risk of
workplace stress – identify high risk roles / individuals and provide
appropriate support
•
Establish appropriate intervention and support processes
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The barriers:
•
General lack of awareness and understanding across the
communities.
•
General lack of understanding by line leaders.
•
Predominantly male, and sometimes “macho” culture.
•
Lack of timely access to medical professionals, especially specialist
occupational therapists and clinical psychologists, in regional
Australia.
•
Tight labour market leading to:
– line leadership with less experience;
– teams compensating for high vacancy rates;
– peer pressure to succeed.
•
Data privacy and confidentiality concerns – unable to share ‘wins’.
•
Lack of leading and lagging indicators / data for decision making.
•
Piecemeal approaches have no history of sustainability.
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UK HSE management standards
•
•
Companies generally work more effectively with data to
determine the risks and control effectiveness. This strategy can
also be applied to work related stress.
The UK-based Health and Safety Executive (UKHSE) has
developed a risk assessment template based on five steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify the hazards
Decide who might be harmed and how
Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
Record and implement findings
Review the assessment and update it
http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm.
Proactive Management of Mental Health in the Resources
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UK HSE management standards
•
Key areas of work design that can either reduce resilience to non-work
triggers, or can in extreme cases be a trigger for a mental illness:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Demands – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work
environment.
Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work.
Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources
provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.
Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and
dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and
whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles.
Change – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and
communicated in the organisation.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm.
Proactive Management of Mental Health in the Resources
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Absolute vs relative performance
•
UK-HSE Survey carried out for Lake MacLeod as a pilot.
11.4%
Key
Doing very well - need to maintain performance
Represents those at, above or close to the 80 th percentile †
34.3%
20.0%
Good but needs improvement. Represents those better than
average but not at, above or close to the 80th percentile †
Clear need for improvement. Represents those likely to be below
average but not at, below or close to the 20th percentile †
34.3%
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Urgent action needed. Represents those at, below or close
to the 20th percentile †
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The next steps:
•
Analysis of data by Australasian Centre
for Rural and Remote Mental Health.
•
Mental health training for workforce, with additional training for
specialist support roles.
•
Increase awareness and engagement of line leadership.
•
Use site employment engagement committee to start to suggest
recommendations to address weaknesses as identified in the data.
•
Engagement of community specialists with the draft strategy.
•
Influence other regional stakeholders to achieve community
support.
•
Integrate with periodic medicals and other wellness initiatives.
•
Identify key business processes for change.
•
Formalise integrated strategy.
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Why this has a good chance of
working
•
•
•
•
•
•
A relatively stable workforce exists at Lake MacLeod.
Carnarvon is a relatively small, close-knit community.
Senior leadership and operational management is on side.
Existing health and safety initiatives such as ‘Wellness’ have
synergy with the MHS.
There exists a very enthusiastic working team.
The organisation is willing to look at itself to potentially
improve.
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The challenge: A
business that has a net
positive impact on
employees health.
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