Workplace Mental Health First Response

Set Up

Background

The cost of untreated mental health conditions to Australian businesses exceeds $10 billion each year, highlighting the urgent need for improved mental health literacy and early intervention capabilities across all sectors (Mental Health First Aid Australia, 2023).

This project aligns with emerging work health and safety regulatory requirements relating to psychosocial hazards, which place increasing obligations on employers to identify, manage and mitigate risks such as work-related stress, bullying, high job demands and exposure to traumatic events. These reforms highlight the need for workers and supervisors to have practical skills to recognise and respond to psychosocial risks early, supporting prevention and compliance within workplace safety frameworks.

In addition, several Jobs and Skills Councils identified the need for nationally endorsed training for workplace mental health first responders during their 2025 workforce planning activities. They agreed that HumanAbility was best placed to develop the nationally endorsed training products to meet this need.

The provision of nationally endorsed training products will contribute towards:

• establishing standardisation to ensure consistency, quality and credibility of mental health first response training across sectors
• improved accessibility, facilitating widespread adoption of mental health first response skills and particularly benefiting underserved regional, rural and remote communities
• enhancinge workforce skills and equipping the Australian workforce with essential capabilities to address mental health crises promptly and effectively
• supporting national mental health policy and aligning vocational training outcomes with objectives outlined in Australia’s Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan.

This is an 18-month project that is expected to be completed by January 2028.

Project Scope

This project will develop up to 4 units of competency focused on equipping workers with the skills to recognise early signs of mental health distress, provide appropriate immediate support and facilitate referral to professional services.

The units will be designed to enable flexible contextualisation across industries, workforce settings, cohorts, including regional and remote communities.

Project governance and consultation strategy

A Technical Committee of industry experts will be established to provide specialised advice for this project. Members are carefully selected based on their relevant expertise and experience in areas critical to the project. The committee will work with HumanAbility to:

• identify relevant stakeholders to consult with about the project
• provide insights on proposed communication and consultation strategies
• provide technical knowledge on the skills and knowledge required to meet graduate outcomes and workforce needs.

Our draft Project Consultation Strategy and Technical Committee Terms of Reference will be finalised once the Technical Committee has been formed and had an opportunity to review. Once finalised it will be made available to download.

How to get involved

To get involved and participate in consultations, subscribe to project updates.