Target Audience

Insurance professionals who want to build healthier workplaces, strengthen supportive workplace cultures and gain confidence in having meaningful wellbeing conversations.

Overview

In an industry built on relationships, trust and supporting people through some of life's most challenging moments, looking after the wellbeing of those around us has never been more important.

To mark R U OK? Day, the Victorian Committee is proud to bring the insurance community together for an inspiring and thought-provoking event focused on mental health, resilience and the power of meaningful conversations. While insurance professionals spend their days helping clients navigate uncertainty and adversity, it's equally important that we recognise when our colleagues, peers or even ourselves may need support.

The session features Peta Sitcheff, Beyond Blue volunteer speaker, author and workplace mental health advocate, who will share her deeply personal journey through acute burnout after years in a demanding corporate career. Like many high-performing professionals, Peta believed success meant continually pushing through, until the physical and emotional impacts of burnout forced her to stop and reassess what sustainable success really looks like.

Through her honest and relatable story, Peta explores the often-overlooked warning signs that burnout is developing, why so many of us ignore what our minds and bodies are trying to tell us, and how small changes can make a significant difference before we reach breaking point. As a Beyond Blue volunteer speaker, she is passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraging people to seek support early, rather than waiting until they're overwhelmed.

More than an inspiring story, this session provides practical tools that attendees can take back to their workplaces and everyday lives. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own working habits, recognise the early signs of stress and burnout in themselves and others, and explore simple strategies to build healthier routines, stronger boundaries and more sustainable ways of working. Together, we'll consider how creating psychologically safe workplaces and checking in with one another can help build a healthier, more connected insurance profession.

The session concludes with audience Q&A, followed by networking with colleagues from across Victoria's insurance community. You'll leave with practical tools, greater confidence and a renewed appreciation for the simple question that has the power to change a life: "Are you OK?"

Key Take-aways

• Recognise the early signs of stress and burnout.
• Build healthier and more sustainable work habits.
• Gain practical strategies to support your own wellbeing.
• Learn how to confidently check in with colleagues and start meaningful conversations.
• Better understand the role psychological safety plays in creating supportive workplaces.
• Leave inspired to create positive change for yourself, your team and the broader insurance community.