Staff Writer

Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds (HHTS) Foundation has delivered a National Mental Health and Wellbeing Roadmap, which sets out the plan for the road transport, warehousing and logistics industries to move forward on mental health and wellbeing.

The Roadmap is about knowing where to start, knowing where to turn, knowing where to go next, and it is freely available to everyone in the sector.

In establishing HHTS, industry leaders acknowledged the long road ahead to building a sector that is healthy and happy, one where mental health is as everyday as physical safety.

The role of HHTS is to coordinate the implementation of the three-year Roadmap strategy across all levels of the sector, whether it be owner-operators, small businesses or large organisations.

As a Foundation we know that systemic change will not occur overnight. This is partly due to the wide range of challenges that people in the industry face.

Through research conducted by AP Psychology Consulting Services (APPCS) and engagement with industry, we know that these challenges vary from workload and fatigue to critical incidents and trauma, as well as high levels of isolation and social disconnection.

Unquestionably, these risk factors can play a significant role in impacting a person’s mental health and wellbeing. This is why the Roadmap is a vital step toward making a tangible impact, creating environments and workplaces where employees can thrive in what they do.

The Roadmap has been developed by APPSC in consultation with HHTS and industry participants through an Advisory Board, and covers three key priority areas that have been identified as pivotal in changing existing approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

These areas aim to address:

Leadership capabilities in the workplace,
Challenges of work design, and
Building psychologically safe cultures within industry.

In targeting these key areas, the Roadmap provides an integrated approach for leaders and managers to support and protect employees.

Traditionally, many workplaces in the sector have focused on awareness, rather than implementation of support and recovery strategies.

Although awareness is of critical importance, moving forward greater emphasis must also be applied to prevention.

Over time, as HHTS embeds understanding of the Roadmap, we, as an entire industry, can build better work cultures that champion support and recovery, with a focus on increasing the resilience of the entire workforce.

In the future we hope that if a person is struggling in work or in their personal life, their workmates and other colleagues will be able to support them with the right tools and strategies.

Underpinning the success of the Roadmap is our industry taking small steps over time and recognising the journey ahead.

Equally important is all of industry coming together to make a unified commitment to following the plan that is set out in the Roadmap.

For some businesses this will be the beginning of their journey to better mental health and wellbeing, and for others the Roadmap will support them in building upon the progress that they have already made.

Beyond the Roadmap itself, HHTS provides the opportunity for businesses and individuals to become members of the Foundation, in doing so they will be able to receive the tools, resources and support to successfully implement the Roadmap, with the opportunity to become a certified workplace in the process.

Naomi Frauenfelder
CEO,
Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds

Naomi Frauenfelder was previously Executive Director of the TrackSAFE Foundation — an Australian rail industry not-for-profit, that addresses suicide on the rail network and the resultant trauma caused to train drivers and other frontline staff. It is this experience that Naomi will draw upon and apply to HHTS, to strengthen and grow the organisation and work to improve mental health in the trucking and logistics industry. Naomi has spent her career to date honing her passion for working nationally to unite industries behind significant causes such as mental health, providing individuals and organisations with the resources they need to face challenges head-on, creating cultures of care and support. Naomi holds a Bachelor and Masters from Monash University and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.