Funded through WorkSafe Victoria’s WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund, Thriving in Health aims to protect and promote the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare workers.
The Thriving in Health project responded to a recognised need to address work-related factors that present risks to healthcare worker mental health and wellbeing.
The Thriving in Health project
Taking a prevention-led approach, Thriving in Health aimed to research, develop and trial four strategies through collaborative partnerships between Victorian health services and workplace mental health and design experts:
Leading in Health: enhancing leadership capability to improve Victorian healthcare worker mental health and wellbeing
Job control and mental health: a pilot study to examine the feasibility and acceptability of strategies to enhance job control for nurses
Critical Incident Response Model: the development and trial of an evidenced-based model for managing exposure to potentially traumatic events in the workplace
Safety Sensescaping: exploration of innovative workplace design solutions to address how we prevent mental injury in healthcare workers
The approach
A multi-phased approach underpinned each strategy and included:
- research and consultation with healthcare workers to develop a foundation of evidence
- design and development of tailored workplace mental health and wellbeing strategies
- ‘testing and trying’ initiatives with partnering health services
- evaluation and knowledge sharing
Expert partners
The Black Dog Institute is an Australian medical research institute investigating mental health across the lifespan. Their aim is to create a mentally healthier world for everyone. |
Future ensemble design studio is a design practice exploring pathways towards circular, regenerative and more-than-human alternatives. |
RMIT’s School of Design is a consolidation of communication, industrial and digital design disciplines. They School of Design works closely with industry through research collaborations and partnered studios. |
FBG Group are a boutique consulting firm with a unique approach to strategic wellbeing, leadership and organisational consulting. |