Helping you understand and manage psychosocial risks at work.
New Zealand health and safety at work legislation makes it clear that it is the responsibility of business owners/managers (the PCBU and its 'officers') to ensure that adverse events do not result in harm to workers, either physical or mental. The most effective way to prevent harm is to identify hazards/risks that have the potential to cause harm and eliminate them, and if they cannot be eliminated, they should be managed in a way which prevents harm.
Physical risks, such as working in and around vehicles, can result in physical injury (harm) although such harm is also associated with mental (psychological) harm. There is another group of risks that we refer to as psychosocial risks, which are risks associated with the design of work, social interactions at work, and some aspects of the work environment that are more often associated with mental injury, although they can also cause physical harm.
Critical psychosocial risks can be difficult to identify and manage. MindAtWork is here to help businesses, workers, and others understand psychosocial risks, identify the critical risks in their setting, and develop an efficient/effective approach to controlling these risks and protecting workers.
Understanding psychosocial risks
If you are going to be injured by exposure to a falling log at work you are likely to be working in specific environments doing a limited range of jobs. If you are going to be injured (physically or mentally) by exposure to psychosocial risks you could be any worker, doing any job, anywhere in New Zealand. It is the responsibility of the business to identify and manage psychosocial risks.
Identifying & assessing psychosocial risks
It is no longer acceptable to claim that we do not know what work-related psychosocial risks are. Although it may be more difficult to agree on the specific critical psychosocial risks related to our work. Outcomes for workers and the business are better when psychosocial risk management is prioritised. The publications of ISO45003 is a great place to start identifying risks if leaders/ managers and workers are able to work together.
Controlling psychosocial risks
Controlling/managing psychosocial risks is complex because these risks are dynamic not static, that is, they change over time and can vary between workers and within a worker depending on what else is happening at work, or elsewhere. It is for this reason that fundamental, higher-order controls which prevent hazards from becoming risks is likely to be more effective in the long-run.
About me
My name is John Fitzgerald and I am a Registered (Clinical) Psychologist with the New Zealand Psychologist's Board. I completed my doctorate in 2002 through University of Waikato. I have strong links with the New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) having been their Director of Professional Affairs, Editor-in-Chief of the Society's Journal of Psychology, and a past-President. I am a Fellow of the NZPsS.
Between 2020 and early 2025 I worked at WorkSafe New Zealand leading the Mentally Healthy Work team, the team which provided subject matter expert advise and leadership to the organisation on matters relating to psychosocial risk management in the community.
Between 2015 and 2020 I was a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at Massey University (Wellington campus), and still retain the position of an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the university.
Before 2015 I worked as a clinical psychologist in a range of settings and with a range of clinical populations, led psychology and multi-disciplinary teams, researched and taught on a range of topics related to psychology and mental health, and spent 14 years as Executive Director of a small not-for-profit organisation in Hamilton.
What MindAtWork can do for you
(here are a few ideas)
