Dr. Leith Middleton’s expertise is primarily in psychology, psychological health and safety safety organizational development where she supports workplaces to build mentally healthy workplaces. Part of this is about identifying safety managing psychological hazards in the workplace. That whole term (psychological hazards in the workplace) brings a smile to my face because it was an unknown term for so many of us who began work in the 70’s safety 80’s. It’s a term which wasn’t in our vocabulary back then……We’ve come a long way. A bit like the term ‘coercive control’ or gaslighting – they are terms many of us had never heard.

The majority of Leith’s work is advising workplaces leaders on psychosocial risk mitigation. This includes industries with workers routinely exposed to potentially traumatic material or events safety finding more rigorous ways to mitigate risks to their workers. There is increasing expectations under elevated WH&S legislation to respond to risks in a more systemic way. In saying that, I feel we may have gone to the other extreme as managers often feel unsure or hesitate in acknowledging someone may not be coping, for fear of being accused of delving into someone’s personal life safety overstepping their responsibilities.

I’m looking forward to drilling down with Leith in relation to the tendency of many to blame violent or aggressive actions on ‘mental health’, helping people to understand the difference between mental illness and mental health safety how the term “mental health issues” is becoming over-used safety often misunderstood. 

Saying someone has “mental health issues” which caused them to perpetrate a violent crime seems to Leith, to be overly simplistic.

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