Work needs to be safe and healthy, including mentally healthy. The financial and wellbeing costs of work-related mental health conditions are escalating rapidly and causing unsustainable impacts on productivity, competitiveness, and worker health and safety. An estimated 12 billion working days are lost each year due to depression and anxiety resulting in US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity globally. Creating mentally healthy workplaces requires multi-sector collaboration to develop and implement evidence-based innovations that   aim to prevent injury and improve mental health and productivity in a legal, ethical and responsible way.

The Consortium for Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing is proposing to establish the National Centre for Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing (National Centre) to address the gaps and opportunities to improve workplace mental health, safety, wellbeing, and productivity outcomes for 13.8 million working Australians and every Australian organisation. The National Centre will foster health, safety and wellbeing innovation and research driven by Australian workplace and worker needs, opportunities and gaps. This will include the delivery of safe and effective workplace mental health solutions and worker wellbeing supports.