Psychosocial and Psychological Hazards are those hazards that arise from nonphysical, organisational, operational, or other sources. Psychosocial hazards are a known threat to the integrity and sustainability of the workforce, accounting for approximately 10% of all claims made for diseases and conditions across 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. However, despite this small proportion against the larger percentages of claims made for injuries, wounds, and other musculoskeletal diseases, mental health conditions and those arising from uncontrolled psychosocial and psychological risks routinely had both the largest median time lost in terms of weeks, being more than 35, and the highest median compensation paid for workers, being more than AUD$ 67,000.
Psychosocial and psychological risks are those hazards that arise from occupational psychological stress. Psychological stress can be considered as analogous to physical stress - different workers have different levels of physical strength and capacity and so some can more easily, sustainably, or otherwise deal with physical tasks. So too do different workers have different psychological capacities that can be influenced by their level of education, their histories, other medical conditions, and the nature of the work they are doing. Exposure of a worker to a psychosocial or psychological risk imposes stress on that worker's psychological capacity. While stress itself is not an injury, if it becomes frequent, prolonged or severe, stress can cause psychological and physical harm, in the same way that repetitive, sustained, or profound physical effort can cause physical injury.
Occupational psychological stress can arise from factors relating to the workplace, relating to the worker, and from other factors. When considering factors relating to the workplace, the organisation of work is a well-understood predisposing factor to stress. The demands of work, described broadly as job demands, which encompass physical, psychological, and mental demands, are those which must be met by workers using their own physical, psychological, and mental resources. Where the worker's capacities may not be sufficient to meet the demands of work, the organisation can provide that worker with support through information, training, instruction, and supervision. Job demands exist in a balance - excessive demands can cause stress, insufficient demand can cause boredom and listlessness that can lead to dissatisfaction. Job demands are elastic and can change with occupational factors like busy periods at work which may intensify the demands on workers without changing the range of those demands. Changes in organisational structure or role reorganisation may not increase the intensity of demands but introduce change as a consequence of the extensification or broadening of those demands. All of these things may predispose a worker to psychosocial or psychological injury.
Worker-related factors that may increase a worker's risk of sustaining a psychological or psychosocial injury include exposure to traumatic materials or events as a consequence of work, such as in support services if a patient experiences a severe adverse medical event, if a worker is the recipient of violence, aggression, harassment, bullying, or discrimination from peers and colleagues, general conflict within the workplace, and poor support. These are factors that may not arise from the organisation of demands at work or the arrangement of work tasks, but from interpersonal factors. Workers are people, and when workers work among and within teams that are staffed by people, those people also work with people. Every worker is exposed to the nonzero likelihood of psychological and psychosocial strain as a consequence of interacting with and among others, and so the management of workers, work teams, and work departments necessitates management of peoples' effect on each other.
Lastly, those factors external to the workplace and the worker that may expose a worker to psychosocial or psychological harm include the physical work environment in terms of its cleanliness, hygiene, and habitability, the organisation of work if it is remote or isolated, and the availability of resources and support to assist workers in doing their jobs. Psychological and psychosocial injuries arise from stress, and if stress is what is experienced when a worker's physical, emotional, and cognitive capacities are repeatedly asked to meet demands beyond their reasonable or sustained ability to do so, then the arrangement of the physical, operational, and organisational environment can prepare and protect workers by providing them with the tools and resources they need to meet the demands imposed on them as well as to minimise the effect or intensity of those demands when they do arise.
Each workplace is different, with different demands, methods of business, and is staffed by people whose capacities, needs, and risk profiles are different. Managing ergonomic, environmental, and occupational health and safety challenges requires a business to examine and engage with the ecosystem of factors that give rise to risk, and how that risk may affect people. Each workplace is different and so sometimes the same problem will require different solutions. This applies to workers as well - every person is different and so may require different support, supervision, or resources to perform comfortably and sustainably. Under Work Health and Safety law, consultation with the workforce, the control of risk as far as is reasonably practicable, and the provision of information, training, instruction and support to the worker by the workplace, is essential to meet obligations to provide workers with a workplace that is as free of risk as far is reasonably practicable.
In our capacity as consultants, Atlas Physio will explore and scope the business and its needs, examining how exposures, risks, and processes contribute to the hazard ecosystem, best inform the design and arrangement of procedural, policy-based, and practical risk controls. Our solutions are tailored to the needs of those with whom we work, implemented in a simple, sustainable, and supportive fashion, designed to be robust and resilient, and to support the ongoing life of the business as well as the sustainable wellbeing of the workers who undertake the day to day activities of work.
At Atlas Physio, we provide reporting, structured control, and ongoing management of risk onsite, on the road, and wherever work is done. We are open seven days a week, and are happy to offer a brief complimentary discussion to explore the needs of your business and your workers if you are an employer, and your needs if you are a worker. Reach out today to arrange a discussion and take the first step toward managing risk and working safely, supported by expertise that is practical, reliable, and designed to deliver lasting results.