PRIMAeT - Psychological Risk Management _ Vocational Education and Training

Psychosocial risks, work-related stress, violence, harassment and bullying are now widely recognised major challenges to occupational health and safety (EASHW, 2007). Nearly one in three of Europe´s workers, report that they are affected by stress at work (EASHW, 2002). In a wider perspective, psychosocial risks are now a major public health concern and are associated with economic and social security challenges.At the enterprise level there is a need to promote effective practice through the provision of tools that will stimulate and support organizations to prevent and manage psychosocial risks at the workplace, thereby creating better working conditions and promoting mental health of workers and the healthiness of organizations. Awareness raising, education and skills development have been recognized as key priorities in the promotion of mental health at the workplace and the management of psychosocial risks across the EU (Leka & Cox, 2008).The PRIMAeT project will focus on the development of such knowledge and skills through an education and training tool. It will be targeted at employers, managers, occupational health specialists and other practitioners and will be promoted through the World Health Organization and the International Commission in Occupational Health. The new training course will help several countries to cope with a common challenge in the Vocational Education Training area where appropriate training is lacking.The University of Lugano and in particular its Institute of Health and Communication (IHC) will take part in the testing the training course in Switzerland. The course will be translated from Italian into French for testing purposes and distributed and tested among eligible participants in Switzerland in the three national languages. The data will be gathered, cleaned and analyzed.