Safe Work Month - Staff Extranet

October is National Safe Work Month – a time for all within Metro North Health to continue to strengthen their commitment to building safe and healthy workplaces for all.

Safe Work Month encourages all individuals and organisations to prioritise work health and safety (WHS) and take preventative action to reduce the number of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

2025 theme: Safety every job, every day

The campaign encourages all individuals and organisations to prioritise safety in their job every day.

Queensland Mental Health Week (04-12 October 2025) also takes place during Safe Work Month, an annual awareness week that aims to shine a spotlight on individual and community mental health and wellbeing at work. The initiative is linked to World Mental Health Day held on October 10th every year.

2025 Safe Work Month Weekly topics:

Week 1: Identifying Hazards (01- 10 October)

Week 1: Identifying Hazards (01- 10 October) and Queensland Mental Health Week (4-12 October)

Identifying Hazards is the first step in the risk management process and involves finding things and situations that could potentially cause harm to people. Harm can be physical, psychological or both. Common healthcare hazards can be found here: Risk management.

How to identify Hazards:

Hazards can be identified by conducting walk throughs, reviewing information, consulting with workers, considering the work environment and inspecting equipment. Work areas can utilise the WASIC tool Monitoring & performance to proactively identify potential hazards. Regularly inspecting the workplace and observing how things are done can help identify what could or might go wrong. This week, take the opportunity to walk around the workplace, or review the WASIC tool to consider what to look out for. Additional resources include:

Further information on Queensland Mental Health Week can be found here: Get involved in Queensland Mental Health Week

Week 2: Assess Risks (13-19 October)

Once you have identified hazards, the next thing to do is assess the risks by considering what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard, and how likely it is this could happen. A risk assessment is a systematic process to evaluate what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard and the likelihood of it happening.

A risk assessment can help to determine:

How severe the risk is
Whether any existing control measures are effective
What action to take to control the risk and
How urgently the action needs to be taken.

The Metro North Risk Analysis Matrix must be used to determine the level of consequence and likelihood for all risks. Refer to resources from Risk Management Noise for the risk assessment template.

Week 3: Control Risks (20-26 October)

Controlling risks is the most important step in the risk management process, and its about the practical things that can be done to eliminate the risk or minimise them as much as you can if elimination isn’t possible. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, then the hierarchy of control (Managing risks | WorkSafe.qld.gov.au) should be consulted and a combination of control measures should be applied

Employers are responsible for managing WHS risks, including implementing controls but they must do so in consultation with their workers.

Additional resources can be found here:

Week 4: Review Controls (27-31 October)

Controls are only effective at eliminating or minimising risks if they are working as planned, which is why reviewing control measures is an essential part of effective risk management – don’t wait until something goes wrong. Reviewing controls involves consulting your workers and ensuring safety procedures are being followed, checking that health and safety incidents are reducing over time, and ensuring that any new hazards introduced by the controls are also managed. Employers should create a culture where safety is a priority and workers feel comfortable to raise risks and share where things aren’t working as expected – this helps create a safer workplace for all.

To review controls:

You may use the same methods as in the initial hazard identification step to check controls. If you find problems, you should then work through the full risk management process to develop more effective ways to manage risk. A written record of all your business’s risk management decisions and activities will make future risk assessments simpler and easier. If an incident occurs, well-kept records will also help you demonstrate that you’ve met your duty of care for your workers.

Additional Resources

How to get involved: National Safe Work Month 2025.

During Safe Work Month, Metro North Health is hosting an exciting program of events and information, covering local facility events, competitions with prizes, safety walks &talks, SafeTea Morning Teas

BBQs, and a variety of key safety topics/resources for everyone to get involved. Recognise National Safe Work Month this October by hosting SafeTea Event in your workplace. Gather your team, a cuppa and have an important conversation about health and safety at work. All Metro North Employees can register for virtual work health, safety and wellbeing webinars.

View the Event Schedule to see the range of activities, events, and webinar topics on offer.

Competitions

Exciting Prizes on offer, employees have access to a number of Safety and Wellbeing Competitions:

Launching week commencing Wednesday 1st October 25– Guess the Top 3 Incident Types in your Facility.

Who is a champion at Return to Work? – Exciting prizes await our Line Managers who have demonstrated positive return to work culture in their Workplace.
HSR Super Star – Exciting prizes await for our Star HSR members across the HHS
Fire Champions – Acknowledging Metro North Fire Wardens.

Calendar

EVENT	DATE	TIME	EVENT DESCRIPTION	EVENT TYPE
RBWH HSR Forum & Appreciation Morning Tea	Thursday 26 September	9:30am - 10.30am	Quarterly RBWH HSR Forum and Appreciation morning tea.	Facility
Connection to Country	Monday 30th September	10am-11am	Join Jeff Hardy from The Change Room as he explores wellbeing from an Indigenous Australian perspective, connecting our spirit to the majestic country and enabling personal health and wellbeing.	Teams
Positive Safety – Presented by SENTIS	Tuesday 1 October	9:30am – 10:30am	What does safety look like? Is safety looked at as a cost or as an opportunity? Are employees seen as the problem or solution? It’s easy to fall prey to the idea that safety takes too long, costs too much or just get in the way of getting the job done. But what if we looked at safety as a form of currency that we can use to invest in things that matter most. Join Sentis as they flip the traditional safety narrative on its head and create a space where people share a value driven desire to do great work in which quality and safety are paramount, and people are intrinsically motivated to invest in the safety and wellbeing of themselves and others.	Teams
COH Safety/Engagement Walk and Talk Chermside/Stafford/Sandgate	Wednesday 2 October	From 8am	Come and say hi and chat to the Health and Safety Team as they walk around the facility. Grab a tea or chocolate and participate in competitions, there are prizes to be won!	Facility Walk around
QOVSU Presentation	Thursday 3 October	10am	Occupational Violence Prevention (OVP): Its not just OV training. This presentation will explore what and why of Occupational Violence (OV) and the reality of OV exposure in healthcare. You will gain a greater understanding of managing OV risks holistically, the 4 Pillars of OVP Management – Awareness, Prevention, Incident and Post Incident Support and what initiatives are available at Queensland Health. Finally we will develop into post- incident support and why it is so important and how we can do it well.	Qld Health Webinar
RBWH All Staff BBQ	Thursday 3 October	11am	All staff are invited to the RBWH All Staff BBQ to celebrate 2024 Safe Work Month. Come and say HI and chat all things Safety with the Health and Safety Team. Education, competitions, and prizes to be won	All Staff BBQ
Effective workplace consultation	Friday 4 October	10am	This presentation will provide practical strategies for improving consultation with workers and building positive working relationships. It will also cover the evolving role of Health and Safety Representatives (HSRS) including the recent updates from the Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024.	Virtual Event
Neurodiversity at Work	Friday 4 October	2pm	Organsiations that invest time and resources into the recruitment, retention and support of neurodivergent workers reap many benefits. They stand to gain a competitive edge by encouraging new ways of viewing the world, and problem – solving, as well as championing diversity and inclusion within workplace culture. This session is designed to provide colleagues and managers who support neurodivergent team members a deeper understanding of neurodiversity, overcome misconceptions and encourage the embrace of possibilities that inclusion of the neurodiverse community brings.	Virtual Event
Walk for awareness	Sunday 6 October	All day	This is the time to come together as a community, celebrate life and remember those we’ve lost. We have two options to participate. A virtual walk, so you can walk wherever you want or our physical walk in Brisbane with 1000s of people making a difference in our community. Beginning with an inspiring opening ceremony, we will remember those we have lost to depression and mental illness and honor those continuing battle. We will have a quick warm up and stretch and then take off on a 9km walk. Walk for awareness is an event that involves bringing people together in a friendly and safe environment where issues of mental health can be discussed openly with friends, family, and supportive strangers. We believe the matters surrounding suicide should be discussed not hidden.	Virtual or in person

Get involved in the events and competitions.

Metro North Health and Safety Team have organised some exciting competitions for Safe Work Month 2025. Each facility will have the opportunity to participate in:

Guess the Top 3 Incident Types

Please provide your entries to the team on the day or email a scanned copy through:
mnhhshealthandsafety
@health.qld.gov.au
by Close of Business Thursday 31st October.

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