National Pain Week: Practical Strategies for Supporting Workers & Reducing Psychosocial Risk

National Pain Week is quickly approaching (26–31 July), and it’s the perfect time to confront an uncomfortable truth: many workplaces have quietly taught their workers that pain isn’t worth reporting.

Organisations are often proud to claim zero lost-time injuries, however, that doesn’t mean your people aren’t quietly carrying the burden of physical strain.

Why this matters

At Work Healthy Australia, our data shows that when workers seek care earlier, return-to-work rates drastically improve, reliance on suitable duties and further medical intervention drops, and there are fewer identified barriers to recovery.

The 2025 National Pain Report shows that workers in pain are dealing with far more than the injury itself. Over 50% of respondents reported issues like sleep disturbance, financial strain, reduced intimacy and changes in eating patterns.

Pain is not just a physical barrier for workers to overcome. There’s often a psychological and social side too, which may benefit from coaching, counselling, or simply regular check-ins with trusted colleagues. When workers feel heard, they stop struggling silently.

Time to check in

A few honest questions:

• Is “let’s see how it goes” your supervisors’ go-to response when a worker mentions pain or discomfort?
• Does your culture quietly tell workers to suck it up, or push their concerns down the road?
• Have experienced workers stopped putting their hand up because suffering through work is just “normal”?

If any of these sound familiar, this type of disengagement is where niggles quietly become claims. The good news? The fix isn’t expensive or complicated. Decades of pain science research point to education as the most underused tool in injury management.

Tips for workplaces: managing psychosocial hazards through injury management

• Don’t hide injured workers on low-demand jobs and forget about them. Ask yourself: does this feel like punishment? Is it socially isolating? Could they contribute their skills in other ways – e.g. tutoring or mentoring newer workers?
• Watch for conflict. Are they exposed to friction with colleagues who don’t understand the context behind their suitable duties or injury?
• Check your support systems. What do you have in place to make sure workers get the support they need? Does that support hold up both at work and through extended claim periods?

It all comes back to one thing: feeling heard

The 2025 National Pain Report tells us that 7 in 10 Australians feel ignored when it comes to their chronic pain. So how do we keep workers engaged, feeling supported and playing an active role in recovery?

It all comes back to genuine consultation.

Try asking:

• Are your suitable duties helping you get better?
• How are you coping with your new role?
• Are you sleeping well?
• How would you rate your overall mental health right now?

Proactively manage workplace pain

If you are looking to mitigate psychosocial hazards by proactively managing workplace pain, Work Healthy Australia offers a supervisor training workshop. This session equips your frontline leaders with a deep understanding of pain behaviours and the evidence-based communication tools needed to engage effectively with injured workers, de-escalate fear and prevent complex claims.

Find out more here.