Prof. Shantha Rajaratnam
Establishment Co-Lead
Monash University
Mentally
Healthy
Workplaces
Australia
As the national centre for workplace mental health and wellbeing, we will champion innovation, spearhead research, and provide practical implementation support to help create mentally healthy workplaces.
Time for changeAustralia stands at a pivotal moment. Now is the time to take decisive action and embed effective mental health and wellbeing solutions into our workplaces.
The benefits of mentally healthy workplaces on worker safety, wellbeing, and productivity are substantial. Yet, they are often misunderstood and overlooked as we focus on short term business issues and priorities.
Mentally healthy workplaces are no longer a nice to have – they are the law. Work Health and Safety legislation requires all organisations to proactively manage psychosocial risks, prevent injury and illness, and provide a psychologically healthy and safe workplace.
Yet, despite this increased focus, Australia has fallen below the global average for rates of workplace burnout, exhaustion, and cognitive impairment. In today’s workforce, 43 percent of Australians will experience a mental health condition. Disengagement and dissatisfaction are at the highest rates in decades, while our national productivity continues to decline.
Today, less than half of workplaces are actively addressing mental health and wellbeing challenges. With multiple barriers, most organisations don’t know where to start. There is a real desire for action, positive change, and support, which Mentally Healthy Workplaces Australia (MHWA) will address.
MHWA is a world-first. Our purpose is to create innovative, impactful, and integrated workplace mental health, safety, and wellbeing tools and initiatives that are practical and evidence-based. We bring together diverse partners across the workplace ecosystem to collaborate on a nationally coordinated approach, aiming to positively transform the way we do business and experience work.
Over 15 years MHWA
will deliver
65,000
fewer people leaving their current jobs due to more mentally healthy work and workplaces
$1.5 billion
in risk adjusted benefits to the Australian economy and community
570,000
fewer people will experience mental ill health due to improved work and workplace systems design
1.8 million
days of reduced absenteeism due to mental ill health
4,000
high-skilled jobs created
Introducing MHWA
Mentally Healthy Workplaces Australia is the national centre for workplace mental health and wellbeing
Working together, our mission is to solve the workplace mental health and wellbeing challenges of today and lay the foundations for thriving workforces and prosperous workplaces of tomorrow.
We exist to remove the confusion and friction and become the trusted, go-to hub for workplace mental health and wellbeing.
For the first time, we will unite diverse partners spanning the entire workplace mental health and wellbeing ecosystem, forging a path to meaningful, scalable, and measurable change.
1
Diverse Partners from the Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing Ecosystem
2
Co-create and innovate effective solutions
3
Implementation support for workplaces to embed solutions
4
Measure meaningful change and impact
Find out more
Book a meeting
Speak with our team to
explore partnerships or
to find out more.
Meet the Establishment
Executive Leadership team
The establishment of MHWA is led by an interim executive team of prominent industry, academic and union workplace mental health and wellbeing experts.
Margo Lydon
Establishment Co-LeadMentally Healthy Workplace AllianceProf. Sally Ferguson
Working Group MemberAppleton Institute Central QLD UniversityProf. Sam Harvey
Working Group MemberBlack Dog InstituteLiam O'Brien
Working Group MemberAustralian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)Prof. Martin Foley
AdvisorMonash University
Partnering for Impact
There is an urgent need to make workplace mental health and wellbeing a national priority, but we cannot do it alone.
MHWA brings together: industries and workplaces; unions and workers; research academics; service providers; governments and regulators; peak bodies; technologists; insurers; educators; investors; and, of course, people with lived / living experience.
We are proud to be collaborating with our Establishment Partners who will play a pivotal role in the formation and future direction of MHWA, co-designing flagship projects and establishing MHWA’s governance.
With $58 million secured in-principle funding from public and private sector, we are well on our way to achieving our bold vision together.
$0m
in-principle funding
$0m
total target funding
0+
in-principle partners
Join us as we stand at the forefront of co-creating and implementing global workplace best-practice.
Establishment Partners
Administering Entity
Monash University is the Administering Entity for Mentally Healthy Workplaces Australia (MHWA).
Our Integrated Workstreams &
Key Outcomes
MHWA inspires innovation and delivers outcomes across three integrated workstreams.
Working collaboratively with our Establishment Partners, and aligned with these workstreams, MHWA will launch four flagship projects during our establishment phase. These projects will deliver nationally beneficial outcomes that translate innovation into practice in workplace mental health and wellbeing.
Integrated Workstreams:
Leadership and SkillsWork and Workplace
Systems DesignWorker and Workgroup
Health and Wellbeing
Systems DesignWorker and Workgroup
Health and Wellbeing
All projects will deliver these three key outcomes:
Route to market and implementation support
Supporting industry, workplaces, and workers to use and embed solutions
Economic analysis and impact evaluation
Enables identification of high value impact and sustainable solutions
Digital and Data Governance
Effective use of technologies and trustworthy governance of data in response to privacy, cybersecurity, and legal risks.
Register for
our newsletter & partner briefings
Register to receive newsletter updates and invitations to virtual Partner briefings
To learn more abut MHWA or to join as a partner, please get in touch.
Book a meeting
Speak with our team to explore partnerships or to find out more.
Mentally Healthy Workplaces Australia
