A groundbreaking documentary series and accompanying training program are set to shed light on the critical issue of moral injury when injured patients within the Workers' Compensation Scheme are further brutalised and traumatised by the very system that is meant to help them heal. The betrayal compounds suffering.
The Workers' Compensation Scheme is a finance system, it is not a health system yet holds itself up as such approving and more often than not attempting to disprove people's injuries to 'negotiate monetary compensation' for harm caused within the world of work. It is all about money and the conflicts caused to human health and their care while vulnerable to exploitation are obvious. You cannot recover while you are being beaten up by a system.
There are now growing calls for Workers' Compensation in it's current structure to be dismantled such are the perils to human health and in particular mental health involving a workplace psychological injury.
Shattered, consists of 4 Episodes and separately a training program. The training program - Moral Injury at Work is being launched on October 10 - World Mental Health Day. The program delivers online, a short film highlighting excessive confidence in authority can be a risk factor for psychological and physical safety. It includes a discussion guide, lecture on moral distress - moral injury and fact sheets drawing on case studies to learn from. Tools for developing personal ethics frameworks are also included. It costs $1500 for the license.
According to Gidii Advocacy Founder and Shattered Documentary Executive Producer Kathie Melocco, "Moral Injury is essentially a leadership problem. We have to equip our leaders with better tools to ensure organisational justice is embedded in every organisation. Whilst we have policies and procedures to protect people and organisations, too often leaders do not understand the importance of role modelling ethical leadership. I call it servant leadership."
Moral injury, explores the emerging field of moral distress, moral injury and moral trauma, which can occur when a person perpetrates, fails to prevent, or bears witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. Moral injury can be devastating and long-lasting, with catastrophic effects. It warrants more research and is now a multi disciplinary research field.
Moral injury may arise in situations where there is a lack of leadership accountability, insufficient opportunities for debriefing, a shortage of safe spaces to express concerns, inadequate mental health support, and a lack of proper postvention. It can also stem from the absence of procedural fairness in workers' compensation legal processes, the perceived disconnect between what laws and regulations state versus what actually happens, and a culture that normalizes distress by dismissing it as a consequence of a harsh system. This culture often tolerates interpersonal violence and derogatory behavior.
To address these issues, efforts must focus on leadership, governance, and accountability to promote ethical conduct, eliminate sexual misconduct, gender abuse, and unacceptable behavior, and improve complaints management, including offering proper restitution for harm caused. Recruitment, training, and better healthcare delivery are also essential. These interconnected actions are critical to shifting the conditions, minimizing harm, and reducing the incidence of moral injury.
The "Shattered" documentary series associated educational materials aim to empower conversations about the psychosocial and ethical challenges faced by professionals in the $60 Billion Workers' Compensation Sector. It is a massive sector employing a lot of people and everyone of them must have a framework for understanding what is moral distress, moral injury, organisational justice and how the decisions they take today can have a life long impact on someone's wellbeing both at an individual level and their family and support networks.
As Kathie says, 'The person in front of you is your responsibility. They are not someone to be passed around from agency to agency in acute distress.'

Understanding Moral Injury
Moral injury, is a concept introduced by Dr. Jonathan Shay in 1994, and refers to the profound suffering experienced when individuals in high-stakes situations witness or participate in actions that conflict with their moral beliefs. The "Shattered" series training dramatizes how excessive confidence in authority can jeopardize both psychological and physical safety, particularly in hierarchical systems.
In Dr Shay’s words:
My version of moral injury is something we can do something about. It is, to a degree, within our control.
We agree too.
Comprehensive Training Program
The documentary training is accompanied by a discussion guide designed to facilitate workshops addressing the themes presented in the series. This educational experience aims to:
- Deepen understanding of trauma, moral distress, and moral injury
- Draw from multidisciplinary research and practices
- Enhance participants' ability to develop peer support strategies
- Facilitate moral repair and build moral resilience


The Importance of Mental Health at Work
October 10 is World Mental Health Day and the theme for this year is appropriately .'It's time to prioritise Mental Health In The Workplace. With 60% of the global population in work, the program highlights the urgent need for action to ensure workplaces prevent risks to mental health and support overall well-being. Safe, healthy working environments can act as a protective factor for mental health, while unhealthy conditions can pose significant risks.
Call to Action
World Mental Health Day calls for collaboration between governments, employers, worker representatives, and other stakeholders to improve mental health at work. It emphasizes the importance of involving workers, their representatives, and individuals with lived experience of mental health conditions in this process.
For more information about the "Shattered' training program and to purchase, please visit https://www.shattereddoco.com/dramatisation
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