Join us on World Mental Health Day for a breakfast event hosted by Queensland's Mental Health Ambassador, Hayley Lewis.
This in-person event will feature keynote presentations on implementing strategies for promoting positive mental health and proactive management of mental health in the workplace.
Throughout this half-day event, expert presenters will share insights on psychosocial hazards adversely affecting vulnerable workers and how good work design can help organisations to control the risk of psychosocial hazards.
The event will wrap up with a candid discussion about sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment in the workplace.
Event program
| 6.45 – 7.00am | Registration |
|---|---|
| 7.00 – 7.05am | Welcome by Master of Ceremonies Hayley Lewis |
| 7.05 – 7.15am | Opening address |
| 7.15 – 8.00am | Addressing psychosocial hazards and risks adversely affecting vulnerable worker groups Dr Tessa Bailey, Principal Consultant, Director at The OPUS Centre |
| 8.00 – 9.00am | Breakfast and networking |
| 9.00 – 9.45am | How good work design can help control the risk of psychosocial hazards in the workplace Professor Paula Brough, Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing and Professor of Organisational Psychology at Griffith University |
| 9.45 – 10.15am | Morning tea |
| 10.15 - 11.15am | Fireside chat: Reflections on the current landscape of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment in the workplace
|
| 11.15 – 11.30am | Event closing remarks |
Speakers
Hayley Lewis, Queensland's Mental Health Ambassador is dedicated to sharing her personal story to help reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and advocate for mentally healthy workplaces.
At the age of 15 years old, Hayley captured the hearts of Australians by winning five gold medals at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games. A year later, she made history as one of Australia’s youngest ever World Champion, winning the 200m freestyle at the Perth World Championships.
In 1992 at her first Olympics, Hayley brought home a silver and a bronze followed by more medals at the '93 Pan Pacific Championships, the '94 Commonwealth Games, the '95 World Championships and the '96 Atlanta Olympics. After a short break, she returned to swimming in 1999 and achieved her goal of making the 2000 Olympic team, as well as the 2001 World Championship team.
Since her retirement from competitive swimming, Hayley has been a driving force in the community. She founded a swim school in Brisbane, hosted five seasons of the reality show The Biggest Loser, authored a small business book, Dream, Believe, Create, and has over 18 years' experience as a small business owner. In addition, Hayley has recently completed a psychology degree.
Director of the OPUS Centre for Psychosocial Risk and a registered psychologist, Dr Tessa Bailey completed her PhD focusing on psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial factors at work, earning the Ian Davey Award for the most outstanding PhD thesis at the University of South Australia (UniSA).
Dr Bailey's experience spans health and safety, human resources, injury prevention and injury management. In her prior role as a Research Fellow at UniSA, she assisted with coordinating the Australian Workplace Barometer project, which collected data on working conditions, worker health and productivity outcomes for over 7000 workers across Australia.
Her focus on applied practice led to the creation of The OPUS Centre, where she assists organisations from all industries to understand and improve their internal capacity to manage psychosocial hazards.
Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing and Professor of Organisational Psychology at Griffith University, Professor Brough's primary research areas include occupational stress and coping, employee mental health and wellbeing, work engagement, work-life balance, workplace conflict (bullying, harassment, toxic leadership) and the psychosocial work environment.
Paula is listed in the top 2 per cent of scientists for occupational wellbeing research and is identified as one of the top 50 work-family scholars globally. She has received $6 million in competitive external research grants funding and has authored over 60 industry reports, more than 150 journal articles and book chapters and has produced 12 scholarly books based on her research.
A Fellow of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology and a Fellow of the Asia Pacific Academy for Psychosocial Factors at Work, Prof Brough is also an Associate Editor of Work & Stress, Deputy Editor of Stress & Health, and is an Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Stress Management.
Tracey Spicer AM is a Walkley Award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster who has anchored national programs for ABC TV and radio, Network Ten and Sky News.
The inaugural national convenor of Women in Media, Tracey is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in Australia. In 2019 she was named the NSW Premier's Woman of the Year, accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Tarana Burke on behalf of the Me Too movement, and won the National Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership at the Women & Leadership Australia annual awards.
In 2018, Tracey was chosen as one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence, winning the Social Enterprise and Not-For-Profit category. For her 30 years of media and charity work, Tracey has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Highlights of her outstanding career include writing, producing and presenting documentaries on women and girls in Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and India. She is an Ambassador for ActionAid, the Ethnic Business Awards, Emerge Australia, the Australian POTS Foundation and Purple Our World, and Patron of the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance.
Her first book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, became a bestseller within weeks of publication, while her TEDx Talk, The Lady Stripped Bare, has attracted almost seven million views worldwide.
The ABC highlighted Tracey’s #metoo work in the three-part documentary series Silent No More, which featured the stories of hidden survivors. Her new book published in 2023, Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future, has been longlisted for a Walkley Award, and won the Social Responsibility category in the Australian Business Book Awards.
Jo Sampford is the Director and co-Principal Solicitor at the LGBTI Legal Service, a community-controlled community legal centre that provides holistic help for LGBTIQA+ Queenslanders and the only Rainbow Tick accredited law firm or legal service in Australia.
Jo has 18 years’ experience in the community legal sector and has worked across corporate legal, government, community and disability sector roles. During their time at Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion Jo was recognised by the Public Guardian for their excellence in advocating for the rights of clients with impaired capacity. In their current role at LGBTI Legal Service, Jo advocates for the protection of LGBTQIA+ rights through law reform, strategic litigation, community legal education and oversees the Service’s multifaceted discrimination and civil law practice.
Andrea Fox is the Executive Director of Policy and Workplace Services at the Office of Industrial Relations. Her career has spanned the public sector in Queensland, as well as working for a non-government organisation and teaching in the university sector. Andrea is genuinely committed to the principles of collaborative policy design, knowing that enduring and effective policy solutions are only devised when crafted with those effected by them. She has policy making experience working with a diverse range of industries including work health and safety, industrial relations, vocational training, transport, energy, natural resources and child protection reform.
Since 2017, Andrea has focused on work health and safety. She is the Queensland member of the Strategic Issues Group of Safe Work Australia, where she contributes to the national development of work health and safety policy. Andrea has also chaired a number of tripartite steering groups for collaborative policy development and regulation setting across construction, agriculture and psychosocial hazards.
An advocate for reconstructing growth economics away from GDP and towards the reconciliation of economics with ecology, Andrea holds a Bachelor of Economics, as well as a Masters in Social Science (Economics) from The University of Queensland.