Design for Care State of Affairs Breakfast 3: Changing work design to improve mental health in the healthcare and social assistance industry

One in two Healthcare and Social Assistance (H&SA) employees with poor work design report experiencing burnout. But poor work design isn’t inevitable- large differences exist in the quality of H&SA employees’ work design. The Design for Care research project has partnered with eight H&SA organisations to co-discover solutions to improve work design and employee wellbeing.  

The upcoming Design for Care State of Affairs Breakfast 3 will focus on some of the key learnings, insights and success stories to emerge from the project so far. Professor Anya Johnson and Professor Helena Nguyen from the University of Sydney will provide an overview of our research process, the PARRTH to SMART Work Design created by ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Sharon Parker. They’ll unpack what this looks like on the ground and describe three of the work redesign interventions.  

You will also hear from a panel of H&SA work design field experts - the employees who participated in the interventions themselves. A panel of Design for Care participants from Whiddon, Key Assets and Bankstown City Aged Care will be moderated by Lead Research Fellow of the project, Dr Lucinda Iles from the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University. You will learn how they co-created strategies to aid the redesign of existing work systems, roles and tasks to improve staff wellbeing and mental health.

As an event attendee, you will: 

• learn how SMART work design interventions are implemented to reduce psychosocial hazards in H&SA organisations. 
• have the opportunity to learn and ask panel members questions about their experience of promoting better mental health and well-being through SMART work design. 
• be at the forefront of understanding what the results mean for the future of the H&SA industry and what steps can be taken to build your workforce’s capacity to create mentally healthy workplaces for essential workers.

Cost

Free with complimentary breakfast. Supported by icare NSW.

Registration

For catering purposes, please register via Humanitix by 27 March.

Who should attend

Leaders in the area of workplace well-being, mental health, workers compensation and psychosocial risk within the H&SA Industry.

About the keynote speakers

• Professor Anya Johnson is a Professor and Head of Discipline in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School. Anya is also co-director of the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group. This group integrates research from the fields of management, psychology, biology, and medical sciences to build research strength and excellence in the areas of employee performance, health, and well-being.
• Professor Helena Nguyen is a Professor in Work and Organisational Studies and co-director of the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group at the University of Sydney Business School. She received her PhD and Masters of Organisational Psychology from School of Psychology, University of New South Wales. Helena's research is multidisciplinary and her interests include the role of emotions and cognition at work, human performance, work engagement and well-being.
• Dr Lucinda Iles is a Registered Psychologist and Research Fellow at the Centre for Transformative Work Design. Lucinda received her PhD at Curtin University, and her research interests include mature workers, well-being, and work design.

View highlights from the previous State of Affairs breakfast:

About Design for Care

Design for Care is a research project aimed at developing and assessing work design interventions to create mentally healthy work in the NSW healthcare and social assistance (H&SA) industry. The project is led by Professor Sharon Parker at Curtin University’s Centre for Transformative Work Design, with Professors Anya Johnson & Helena Nguyen at the University of Sydney, and Professor Alex Collie at Monash University. The project is supported by a team of research and professional staff across the three universities, and is funded by icare NSW.