For almost a decade, nothing has changed in the occupational health and safety training procedure. And that day has come…. In August 2024, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine approved amendments to Annex 4 to the Model Regulation on the Procedure for Conducting Training and Testing of Knowledge on Occupational Safety and Health.
What are these changes about? Let’s find out…..
The amendments concern the Model Thematic Plan and Training Program on Occupational Safety and Health for Officials, which adds a new block on psychosocial support in the workplace. The new changes add something quite unexpected to the training plan – the topic “Psychosocial support and first aid in the workplace”.
What does this mean, you may ask? Does it mean that now you have to not only wear helmets at work, but also make sure that you don’t go crazy?
If we quote the legislation, it sounds like this somewhere. In short, this topic No: 8 includes the following important subtopics:
- What is mental health at work; a psychologically safe working environment, what it looks like, and how to recognize and prevent psycho-emotional disorders.
- The role of psychological safety and safety culture in the life of employees and the company.
- Methods and tools for psychological self-help and self-regulation.
- Discrimination, equality and inclusiveness at work – how to prevent and counteract.
- Stress, stability and resilience development as components of mental health.
- Psychosocial factors in a particular job or industry, their impact on workplace safety, accidents, productivity and overall mental health of employees.
- Assessment, elimination, management of psychosocial risks to mental health in the workplace.
- Systems for managing mental health at work and providing first aid in the workplace. Employer’s actions to preserve employee’s mental health.
- How to communicate non-violently in the team.
These changes sound very cool and quite logical, given the sad statistics that emerged in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion among the civilian population. In particular, according to the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), in the first three months of 2024 alone, the number of people diagnosed with PTSD has already exceeded the data for the entire year 2021. And here we are talking only about “civilian” post-traumatic syndrome, since data on military personnel are not published. Of course, statistics are changing, and unfortunately, not for the better. It’s hard to imagine what will happen after the war is over and what numbers we will see among civilians and veterans.
You must admit that after sleepless nights, missile strikes, constant uncertainty, and the daily sound of sirens, it’s hard not to fall into the same statistics. In such conditions, anyone can lose motivation, experience a loss of productivity, or even worse, break down emotionally. Now, in addition to the risk of physical injury in the workplace, mental health is also a factor.
Unfortunately, this much-needed innovation, as always, has many “buts”…
Given the fact that at the moment, apart from these few lines, no other related NAPLs and amendments have been adopted, a number of logical questions arise:
First, who will conduct such training in training centers? Perhaps it will be a qualified psychologist or a separate training center?
Second, how can this knowledge be applied in the future? What should a manager do after such a course at his or her company?
Thirdly, and most importantly, will we all need to “update” our existing certificates after the adoption of these changes? And our version of the answer to this question is rather yes than no.
The fourth and last question, which follows from the previous one, is whether this will be a pretext for manipulation by state authorities during inspections and investigations?
Unfortunately, the amendments do not provide answers to these questions and do not eliminate, but create new psychological problems for managers of enterprises and labor protection services.
So, while you and we hope for the best and wait for changes, we suggest that you do not wait, but conduct trainings for employees and managers on providing First Aid and generally maintaining the mental health of you and your employees and preventing crisis situations. Our experts will help you explain the complex in simple words.
For more details, please follow the link Trainings.
Kateryna Grimovych
Occupational health and safety engineer
