Staff Health, Safety & Wellbeing

Employee Wellbeing Support Services

Employee Wellbeing Support Services has replaced the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) delivered by TELUS Health.

Our new provider, Converge International, will deliver Employee Wellbeing Support Services. The free and confidential services support school staff wellbeing.

Employee Wellbeing Support Services will have a suite of new offerings, including:

• Employee Assist, Manager Assist, Career Assist, Legal Assist (for personal non-work related legal matters), Money Assist, Family Assist, Nutrition and Lifestyle Assist, and Conflict Assist
• dedicated specialist helplinesfor staff who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, identify as LGBTIQA+, have disability or are a carer for a person with disability, staff experiencing domestic and or family violence, require support with loved ones entering aged care or those seeking spiritual and pastoral care.

Converge International will continue the current onsite support for schools after critical incidents.

For more information, refer to Employee Wellbeing Support Services flyers below:

Supporting Specialist School Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing

Planned workplace support 

Through the Department's Employee Safety and Wellbeing Division we have arranged for fortnightly onsite support days (Monday) with a Converge clinician, as part of the school’s staff health and wellbeing supports. These will be 45 min sessions between 8:30am and 4pm. This will be in Conference Room 2. A CRT will release staff to attend these sessions. 

• 27th April
• 11th May
• 25th May
• 22nd June

Please use the booking page below to make an appointment:

Expanding the Early Intervention Program to specialist school staff 

The Early Intervention program that has been available to school principals as part of the Principal Health and Wellbeing Services, has now been expanded to provide support to all Department of Education staff in specialist school settings.    

This confidential program provides support for emerging health and wellbeing risks to prevent them from escalating into more serious health concerns. Under the program, a dedicated care coordinator can help to address a range of work and non-work-related matters (excluding workers’ compensation claims).  

The program is offered to all specialist school staff including education support and casual relief teachers employed by school council access to comprehensive professional services, including psychologists, physiotherapy, dietetics, and exercise physiology tailored to meet individual challenges.  

Specialist school staff can access this self-referral service by contacting Cogent Thinking. Cogent Thinking is an external provider that specialises in early intervention and injury treatment Contact Cogent Thinking by: 

• phone: 1300 090 924   
• email: eiprogram@cogentthinking.com.au  

More information is available on the department’s Policy and Advisory Library.  

Other Supports 

Please note that the following supports are also available to you and your staff: 

• Onsite counselling support after a critical incident: Please call 1300 291 071 and select option 1 to be transferred directly to the Converge Rapid Response Team 
• Employee Wellbeing Support Services: Staff can access these services by calling 1300 291 071 or booking online via the Converge portal with the organisational code mywellbeing   
•  Staff can access information to help you prevent and respond to student challenging behaviours using this link.

Staff Wellbeing Plan

Please find below our Staff Wellbeing Plan about the actions we are taking as a school to promote, protect and address staff mental health and wellbeing. Despite Work-related Violance being present in all schools, this remains an ongoing concern for us at Jackson. It is vitally important that staff continue to lodge EduSafe reports when injured at work so that the Department, Secretary and Ministers are informed of the challenges faced within our schools every day. Staff must do everything they can to keep themselves safe during critical incidents where students are displaying unsafe behaviours of concern. Do not intervene physically or verbally, and keep yourself and other students safe when a student is escalated.

For more information, please visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/school-staff-wellbeing-after-conflict-violence-emergency-or-accident 

Staff Wellbeing

Alex Baynes (Social Worker) is our appointed as the Staff Wellbeing Officer. Staff can also raise concerns with Helen Puljak (Health & Safety Rep). All members of the leadership are also available and happy to provide staff with assistance when required. Just ask - We'll make the time! We will also continue to have Week 5 as our Staff Wellbeing Week for the term, where staff can finish early on the Wednesday of this week.