From 1 December 2025, all employers in Victoria must treat psychological health and safety with the same seriousness and structure as physical health and safety, under the newly introduced Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (the "Psychosocial Regulations").
What's new
Workplaces must now proactively identify psychosocial hazards and not just react when a problem is reported.
These hazards may emerge from work design, systems, management practices, environments, or interpersonal interactions. That includes excessive workload or chronic high demand, unclear roles, low control, poor support, bullying or harassment (including gendered/sexual harassment), workplace conflict or violence, exposure to traumatic events or distressing content, poor change-management or organisational justice, remote or isolated work, and more.
Employers must then either eliminate the risk where possible or if not feasible, reduce it "so far as reasonably practicable."
Control measures should prioritise higher-order interventions (design, system or structural changes) rather than relying solely on training or policy.
Employers must also consult with employees and, where relevant, Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) during hazard identification, control design, and review processes. Contractors under the employer's influence are also covered.
Once controls are in place, they must be regularly reviewed and revised especially when work processes change, new information arises (e.g. complaints, incidents, reports), or on request by HSRs.
What this means for employers (and why it matters)
Psychological health is now a core OHS obligation and not just a "nice-to-have" HR initiative.
Workplaces must take a systematic and preventative approach to mental health risks: anticipate hazards, build safer systems, embed risk management rather than react to events.
This shift is important given the rising number of mental-injury claims in Victoria; under the previous regime, many psychosocial risks were addressed inconsistently or only after harm was reported.
Employers who fail to meet their obligations may face enforcement actions under the broader Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) such as improvement or prohibition notices, or even criminal sanctions depending on severity.
What to do to prepare (or get compliant)
If you haven't already, start preparing now. Here are some key steps recommended for compliance:
Review your current policies and safety management systems
Update to include psychological health and psychosocial risk frameworks.
Conduct a baseline psychosocial risk assessment
Gather data: workload, complaints history, turnover or absence patterns, staff feedback, organisational culture.
Involve your people
Consult employees and HSRs (if present) early: surveys, focus groups, safety-committee input.
Design higher-order controls first
Think work design (realistic workloads and deadlines), staffing levels, role clarity, support and supervision, safe working environment, reporting & response pathways. Use training and awareness as supplement, not sole solution.
Set up systems for documentation, review and monitoring
Record hazard-identification, risk assessments, controls implemented, when reviewed, outcomes. Plan for periodic reviews and event-triggered reviews (e.g. after incidents, complaints, organisational change).
How Sensacare Business Supports the New Psychosocial Safety Rules
Sensacare Business was designed from the ground up to help organisations meet these exact obligations. It brings together real-time workforce health insights, stress and fatigue forecasting, mental-health screening tools (PHQ-9, GAD-7, K10, DASS-21), AI-driven burnout detection, incident reporting, safety check-ins, and department-level risk analytics into a single platform.
Managers can see rising psychosocial risks early, run pulse surveys, monitor stress and workload trends, trigger support pathways, and keep a full audit trail for compliance. The platform's mental-health programs, trauma pathways, crisis alerts, and return-to-work modules give employers a structured way to identify hazards, implement controls, consult staff, and document every step - exactly what the new Victorian regulations require. Sensacare Business turns psychosocial risk management from a reactive HR task into a proactive, systemised safety capability.
Learn more at https://www.sensacare.com.au/business.