Embedding Psychosocial Risk Awareness Through Culturally-Appropriate Conversations

Laynhapuy, a remote Aboriginal community-controlled organisation delivering health, social support, and infrastructure services across multiple homelands in Northern Australia. The workforce is a mix of local Yolŋu staff and non-Indigenous professionals, operating in geographically isolated, high-demand settings with limited infrastructure.

Presenting Challenge:

Over a three-year period, the organisation experienced an increase in mental health-related workers’ compensation claims, absenteeism, and staff turnover. Informal reports suggested unresolved conflict, burnout, and distress linked to high workloads, exposure to trauma, and limited leadership support - but few issues were formally reported or escalated.

Psychosocial Hazard Themes Identified:

High emotional demands and exposure to trauma
Reduced support and supervision, particularly in the field
Poor organisational change communication and role clarity
Remote and isolated work without consistent connection
Cultural and linguistic gaps in wellbeing conversations

Organisational Factors:

Previous attempts to address wellbeing through Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) had limited uptake due to concerns about confidentiality, cultural appropriateness, and access. There were no structured processes for debriefing, learning from events, or identifying system-level risk trends. Staff often felt they needed to “cope quietly,” and risks were unrecognised or normalised.

Actions Taken:

A psychosocial risk assessment was initiated using structured SEWB yarns as a culturally safe alternative to surveys.
Yarns were guided by trauma-informed, strengths-based facilitation techniques and designed to elevate both Yolŋu and non-Indigenous voices.
Semi-structured themes included identity, connection, cultural safety, workload, role boundaries, leadership, and community expectations.
Insights from yarns were analysed against ISO 45003 domains and mapped to 11 key psychosocial hazards.
This approach was supported by incident trend reviews and analysis of historical claims and workload data.

System-Level Outcomes:

The yarn process provided legitimacy and safety for workers to surface difficult truths and cultural tensions not previously captured through formal mechanisms.
Findings directly informed the development of a psychosocial risk register and risk control improvement roadmap.
The approach reshaped the organisation’s understanding of psychological risk as a collective, structural issue - not just a matter of individual resilience.
SEWB yarns are now being integrated into team planning, onboarding, and leadership development.

Key Learnings:

Psychosocial risk assessment is more effective when it starts with listening. Culturally appropriate, story-based methods like SEWB yarns build trust, reveal systemic issues, and strengthen relational safety.
Technical frameworks (like ISO 45003) must be translated through local context, lived experience, and cultural values to be meaningful in Aboriginal community-controlled settings.
Risk control starts with relational work. Without it, policies and procedures may exist - but won’t be believed, understood, or used.