Mental Health Week – Resources to Help Allied Health Professionals

Welcome to Mental Health Week – 7th to 15th October 2023!

Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day are important annual events that remind us all to reflect on our own psychological wellbeing.  As Allied Health Professionals we commonly focus on the mental health of our clients, but our own mental health frequently takes a back seat.  Being conscious of the challenging environments that many of our members work in, last year VAHPA teamed up with Swinburne and RMIT Universities to conduct the Workplace Climate and Well-being of Victorian Allied Health Professionals Survey.

We know from this study that one-quarter (25%) of Allied Health Professionals may be experiencing moderate to severe levels of distress consistent with severe depression and/or anxiety disorder.  In addition to this, 89% indicated that they were emotionally exhausted and 31% indicated that they struggled to cope.  These are concerning figures, especially as they were on the rise in comparison to other similar studies completed previously.  More details about this study can be found here.

With this in mind, VAHPA encourages all our Allied Health Professionals to consider their own psychological wellbeing this Mental Health Week. We encourage you to spend time this week doing activities you know are good for your mental health. If you need ideas, or would like to try something new, the WA Mental Health Week site has lots of good ideas with a focus on the mind, body and environment.

VAHPA strives to improve the working lives of Victorian Allied Health Professionals through improvements in your pay and conditions. VAHPA fights hard to ensure Enterprise Agreements include appropriate entitlements which assist AHPs to better manage their psychological wellbeing at work (and away from work), including annual leave, personal/carers leave, compassionate leave, purchased leave, parental leave, family and domestic violence leave, long service leave, transition to retirement arrangements, flexible work arrangements, workload clauses and matters relating to hours of work and rosters.  

If you have questions about how any of these conditions in your Enterprise Agreements can be used to support your wellbeing, please contact our Member Response Team.  Access to our Member Response Team is free for our members.  Many of the entitlements in your Agreements have been hard fought for, so we strongly encourage you to utilise these with your mental health in mind.  

If you aren’t a VAHPA member please click here to join.