What WorkSafe reports
WorkSafe’s Psychological Health Strategic Approach 2025–26 reports that mental injury accounted for 18 percent of new claims in 2023–24, compared with 11 percent in 2013–14. It identifies healthcare and social assistance, public administration and safety, and education and training as priority industries. These are historical reporting periods, not estimates of 2026 prevalence.
What the figures mean
The proportion describes claims within the compensation system. It does not mean that 18 percent of Victorian workers have a mental injury. Claims data also cannot capture everyone who experiences workplace harm but does not lodge a claim.
A question for prevention
Organisations could compare their own incident reports, consultation findings and work patterns to identify where closer investigation is needed. Use the data to ask better questions rather than to diagnose individual workers or rank teams without context.
Limits of the evidence
A strategy document containing administrative data is not a controlled study of a prevention program. The trend alone does not establish its causes or show which intervention will work in a particular workplace.
Practice questions are editorial interpretations of the official source. They are not evaluated interventions.