The Psych Health and Safety Conference (PHSCON) 2026
Agenda
🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:05 AM
Day 1 – Welcome Address
Host: Jason van Schie
Info: Jason van Schie, CEO and founder of FlourishDx welcomes delegates to PHSCON 2026.
🕑: 09:05 AM - 09:20 AM
What is Good Work? – Introducing Dr Kat Page
Host: Dr Kat Page
Info: To open the conference, Jason van Schie will briefly interview conference chair Dr Kat Page about her new book, Good Work: Transform your work from the inside out.
🕑: 09:20 AM - 10:30 AM
Psychosocial Safety Climate: Measuring What Really Shapes Culture
Host: Professor Maureen Dollard
Info: In this live recording of the Psych Health and Safety Podcast, co-hosts Jason van Schie and Joelle Mitchell will be joined by Laureate Professor Maureen Dollard to explore how organisational culture (values, priorities, corporate mindset) shapes and is shaped by psychosocial safety.
In this conversation, Professor Dollard will reflect on the development of PSC, why culture sits at the heart of the construct, and how robust measurement has helped organisations make culture visible, diagnosable and open to change. The discussion will explore how PSC reveals the often-hidden signals leaders send about workload, pressure, and wellbeing and why these signals matter more than individual-level interventions.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Day 1 – Morning Tea
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Psychosocial Safety as a Critical Business Issue
Host: Francois Barton
Info: Psychosocial safety is increasingly recognised as a material risk to organisational performance, reputation and sustainability -yet many leaders still struggle to keep it on the executive agenda once initial attention fades.
In this fireside chat, Teegan Modderman and Francois Barton will explore how psychosocial safety can be positioned as a core business issue rather than a discretionary wellbeing initiative. Drawing on their experience working with senior leaders and boards, the discussion will examine what captures executive attention, what causes it to drift, and how practitioners can maintain momentum over time.
🕑: 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Consultation That Counts: Engaging Workers, Unions and Diverse Voices
Host: Catherine Dunlop
Info: Effective consultation is central to identifying and managing psychosocial risks – yet many organisations struggle to move beyond compliance-driven processes that fail to build trust or surface real issues.
In this session, Rick Fox, Liam O’Brien and Catherine Dunlop will explore what meaningful consultation on psychosocial safety looks like in practice. The discussion will examine how organisations can engage workers in ways that are culturally safe, inclusive and credible, including consultation with union members and Indigenous workers.
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Day 1 – Networking Lunch
🕑: 01:15 PM - 01:40 PM
Case Study: Supporting Ongoing Leader Capability in Psychosocial Safety
Host: Sandra Keeley
Info: Join Sandra Keeley from TAL Insurance as she shares the organisation’s ongoing journey towards a leader-led approach to psychosocial safety. Sandra will explore TAL’s approach in setting up leaders at different levels to support psychosocial safety as ‘business as usual’. The session will discuss strategies for building the ‘burning platform’ for leaders to prioritise psychosocial safety in an environment with many competing demands, benefits and challenges when aligning health and safety processes with broader enterprise risk management approaches, and “what worked” to build leader confidence to discuss psychosocial hazards and control effectiveness with their staff.
🕑: 01:40 PM - 02:05 PM
Case Study: TBA
Host: Ben Andrews
Info: TBA
🕑: 02:05 PM - 02:30 PM
Case Study: Rebuilding Trust in Healthcare Engagement
Host: Melanie McAnaney
Info: Join Melanie McAnaney as she shares lessons from regional and metropolitan health networks on rebuilding trust in workforce engagement. In a complex healthcare system with a dispersed, largely deskless workforce, Melanie will explore why “survey fatigue” is often a signal of lost trust rather than over-surveying. The session will discuss how executive-led communication, clearer accountability, transparent feedback loops and locally relevant engagement helped strengthen participation, credibility and alignment across staff, unions and leaders.
🕑: 02:30 PM - 03:00 PM
Day 1 – Case Study Audience Q&A Panel
Host: Dr Kat Page
Info: Get your burning questions answered regarding the examples of psychosocial safety application shared during the industry case studies.
🕑: 03:30 PM - 03:40 PM
Day 1 – Wrap Up with Kat Page
Host: Dr Kat Page
🕑: 03:40 PM - 04:45 PM
HR vs Safety: The Psychosocial Safety Functional Feud
Host: Rick Fox
Info: HR and Safety teams are both critical to effective psychosocial risk management – yet they don’t always see eye to eye.
To close Day One, Rick Fox will facilitate a high-energy, interactive session inspired by the Family Feud game format, pitting HR against Safety to explore the common tensions, misunderstandings and challenges that arise in the world of workplace mental health. Through humour, audience participation and a healthy dose of friendly rivalry, the session will surface shared frustrations and familiar dynamics – while reinforcing why collaboration between these functions is essential for success.
Designed to be fun, fast-paced and highly engaging, this session will send delegates into networking drinks laughing, reflecting, and perhaps seeing their counterparts a little differently.
🕑: 04:45 PM - 06:00 PM
Networking Drinks & Book Signing with Dr Kat Page
Host: Dr Kat Page
🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:10 AM
Welcome To Day 2
Host: Dr Kat Page
🕑: 09:10 AM - 10:20 AM
Beyond Individual Resilience: Why Systems and Culture Matter for Workplace MH
Host: Dr William Fleming
Info: n this live recording of the Psych Health and Safety Podcast, co-hosts Jason van Schie and Joelle Mitchell are joined by Dr Will Fleming to examine why many workplace mental health initiatives fail to produce meaningful or lasting change.
Drawing on his research, Dr Fleming will unpack the limitations of individual-level interventions – such as wellbeing programs, resilience training and mental health benefits – when organisational culture and systems of work remain unchanged. The conversation will explore how an over-reliance on individual solutions can obscure the structural drivers of mental harm and place responsibility on workers rather than the design and management of work itself.
🕑: 10:20 AM - 10:50 AM
Day 2 – Morning Tea
🕑: 10:50 AM - 11:15 AM
Case Study: Making Psychosocial Risk Visible
Host: Hayley Farrell
Info: This practice-informed session explores how organisations can connect physical safety, people, and operational data to make psychosocial risk easier to see, discuss, and act on. Using an applied case study approach, it demonstrates how to simplify complex data into a practical leadership narrative, helping leaders focus on the most important risks, identify priorities, and take action in an ever-changing work environment. The session also shows how familiar safety and performance signals can make psychosocial risk more visible, relevant, and actionable for leaders responsible for transformation. By linking these signals, it creates a clearer picture of what is happening, enabling leaders to better understand and address the right risks.
🕑: 11:15 AM - 11:40 AM
Case Study: Integrating HR and Health and Safety
Host: Laura Anderson
Info: Effective psychosocial risk management depends on HR and Health and Safety working as one function, not two. Join Laura Anderson as she shares CBH Group’s journey to build a streamlined, collaborative investigations approach as part of a broader integrated psychosocial safety program — where psychosocial hazards are managed through the same framework as physical safety risks, with common-language hazard classifications, shared investigation processes and integrated reporting. The session covers how CBH strengthened cross-functional ownership and data sharing while protecting confidentiality through a trauma-informed, person-centred approach. Laura will offer practical insight into using investigations as organisational learning — shifting from reactive case management to proactive prevention.
🕑: 11:40 AM - 12:05 PM
Case Study: Implementing Peer Support in High-Exposure Workplaces
Host: Megan Kingham
Info: Join Megan Kingham from InvoCare as she shares the organisation’s journey to establish a Peer Support Network in a high-exposure industry. Supporting team members who regularly engage with grief, trauma and emotionally complex situations, Megan will explore how peer-led support has been embedded as part of a broader psychosocial risk management approach. The session will discuss the challenges of building trust, creating consistency across dispersed teams, and equipping non-clinical staff to provide safe, practical support. Megan will also share how peer support can strengthen connection, enable early intervention and support psychological safety in real-world operational environments.
🕑: 12:05 PM - 12:35 PM
Day 2 – Case Study Audience Q&A Panel
Host: Dr Kat Page
Info: Get your burning questions answered regarding the examples of psychosocial safety application shared during the industry case studies.
🕑: 12:35 PM - 01:20 PM
Day 2 – Networking Lunch
🕑: 01:20 PM - 03:00 PM
From Insight to Action: A Practical Workshop on Advancing Psychosocial Safety
Host: Heather Ikin
Info: Turning insight into meaningful action is one of the biggest challenges organisations face in managing psychosocial risks.
In this interactive, hands-on session, FlourishDx subject matter experts Heather Ikin and Dr Libby Brook, will guide participants through a practical process for translating psychosocial safety challenges into clear, achievable next steps. Designed as a working session, participants will collaborate with other delegates facing similar challenges, test ideas in real time, and apply evidence-informed approaches to their own organisational context.
The session will focus on practical problem-solving rather than theory, helping participants clarify priorities, identify leverage points for change, and build momentum beyond the conference. Attendees will leave with tangible outputs such as tools, frameworks or action prompts that can be taken back to their workplace to support immediate, positive progress in psychosocial safety.
🕑: 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Day 2 – Afternoon Tea
🕑: 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Psychosocial Risk Compliance: Regulatory Expectations, Enforcement & Maturity
Host: Professor Tony LaMontagne
Info: Psychosocial hazards are now clearly embedded within WHS law, shifting organisational focus from awareness and intent to demonstrable compliance.
In this panel discussion, representatives from multiple WHS regulators will examine how psychosocial risk management is being assessed and enforced in practice. The panel will discuss emerging enforcement trends, common compliance gaps, and how regulators evaluate organisational maturity across the psychosocial risk management lifecycle – from hazard identification and consultation through to controls, monitoring and review.
The conversation will provide clarity on what regulators expect organisations to have in place, the types of evidence used to demonstrate compliance, and how enforcement approaches are evolving as regulatory attention increases. This session offers practical insight for organisations seeking to strengthen compliance, meet due diligence obligations, and build more robust, defensible approaches to psychosocial safety.
🕑: 04:25 PM - 04:45 PM
Day 2 Close
Host: Dr Kat Page
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
AUD 658.90 to AUD 2198.90
