The findings from a National Industry Survey (NIS) carried out as part of a landmark mental health research project conducted by the Australian resources and energy industry, in which a number of Safer Together member companies took part, are now available. Safer Together member companies also now have an opportunity to participate in the next phase of the research. 

Phase 1 – Complete

Developed and conducted by specialist psychology research firm Mindshape, and facilitated by the Australian Resources and Energy Group - AMMA, the Resources and Energy Workforce and Leaders Mental Health Research was an Australian-first national research project covering the mining, oil and gas and allied service sectors to the resources industry.

The National Survey sought to investigate employees’ mental health, well-being, service intervention usage and satisfaction, psychological safety, and coping mechanisms. The survey’s goal was to identify areas of need, patterns of strength, and to aid in the development of focused interventions.

“Overall, this mental health research project found that resources and energy employees are coping comparatively well with the added stress and uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has added to their working lives,” said Tara Diamond, AMMA Director Operations.

Click here to see the Summary Report, which provides a snapshot of key findings, insights and recommendations at the industry level.

Click here for a AMMA video presenting the key results.

The Safer Together WA/NT Health Working Group promoted the survey with Safer Together member companies and worked with the research team to understand where our industry was performing well and where our opportunities were.

The research, undertaken independently by specialist psychology firm Mindshape, revealed opportunities in the following areas:

Depression, Anxiety and Stress:

  • Participants recorded higher prevalence of “mild” to “moderate” levels of depression, anxiety and stress than comparative general population samples.
  • However, scores of ‘severe’ to ‘extremely severe’ were lower than general population samples across these three areas.
  • Male participants had significantly higher depression scores than females.
  • Participants in operations roles had significantly higher depression scores than those in executive/manager and supervisor/ team leader roles.
  • Participants working day shifts had significantly lower depression scores than those working mixed day/night shifts.

Sleep:

  • Nearly 20% of participants reported ‘moderate’ to ‘severe’ sleep issues.
  • Participants working mixed day/night shifts had significantly higher sleep issue scores than those working day shifts.

Alcohol use:

  • Nearly 20% of participants reported weekly or more frequent binge drinking (six or more standard drinks in a single session), with the problem more acute in males.Participants in operations roles reported significantly higher alcohol use than those in professional, administration and support and executive/manager roles.
  • Participants working mixed day/night shifts reported significantly higher alcohol use than those working day shifts.
  • Participants in FIFO roles reported significantly higher alcohol use than those in non-FIFO roles.

In 2022 the Safer Together WA-NT Health Working Group will focus on the three key areas identified above, looking for unique ways to raise awareness, provide access to resources and knowledge share within the Safer Together community, leveraging those organisations who have strong programs in a certain area. 

The Working Group will also work with AMMA and the Mindshape research team to build a follow-up survey in 2023, now that we have an industry benchmark.  From this we can benchmark performance improvements and also reveal ongoing opportunities for improvement.

“Over multiple decades as an industry we have successfully focused on building our safety culture and improved safety performance year on year.  It’s now time to place that same focus on health and wellbeing, but we can’t take decades to build that culture - we need to act now.  There is no competitive advantage in Health and Wellbeing, we need to share openly, leveraging off one another to build a sustainable health and wellbeing culture” observed Richard Brazier, one of the members of the WA-NT Health Working Group.

Phase 2 – Starting Soon

Registrations for Phase 2 of the research project are open to Safer Together Member Companies until end March 2022. 

If your Company participates in Phase 2, how will you benefit from the data that AMMA collect?

The information will come to you in the form of a Company-specific Report. There are sections that provide your Company with information about your employees and how they have coped in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic, how beneficial current services have been for them, and provide a snapshot of the mental health and wellbeing of your employees.

Data collected during the research will inform the development of industry tailored interventions which maximise organisational productivity, improve the wellbeing of leaders and employees and assist in the recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.

For further information, and if you’d like your Company to get involved, please contact AMMA directly: [email protected].