Workplaces of the Future: How will mental illness, mental health awareness, trauma-informed practice and neurodiversity shape our workplaces?

Intended workshop audience: Business leaders, managers and owner-operators.

What are you currently doing in your workplace around understanding mental illness? What do you know about how to manage someone dealing with an illness you can’t see? Or poor mental health? And how will this change how we manage and lead people? Neurodiversity, particularly adult ADHD at the moment feels like every second person you know is being diagnosed, but what does this mean for our industry?

In this workshop, we’ll have a look at the recent research and thus the expectations of what people have and what it might look like in the future and how we navigate it in a way to get the best outcome for the individual and the operations of your business.

About Bianca

Bianca Welsh (she/her) is a proud Launcestonian, however, born and adopted from South Korea, she co-owns Stillwater Restaurant and Seven Rooms since 2010 and has her own mental health business – From Experience, providing education and advice to workplaces on how to be a mentally healthy workplace and is a Mental Health First Aid Instructor. She was also a co-founder and operator of Black Cow Bistro for 14 years and is passionate about Launceston as a food destination.

She currently sits on the Launceston Chamber of Commerce and is a non-executive director at TasTafe. Bianca previously sat on the Cornerstone Youth Services board for 7 years, chaired Design Tasmania, had a brief stint on the Visit Northern Tasmania board and recently 2 years on the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania board. In addition, she chaired a government advisory committee for workforce skills in tourism and hospitality.

Bianca never rests on her laurels and loves learning new things, she was determined to understand her team better and the challenges around mental health and completed a Bachelor of Behavioural Science at UTAS in 2018. Bianca has been recognised for her work in the industry and community with accolades such as Young Restaurateur of the Year (2015), Young Tasmanian Australian of the Year Finalist (2016), Young Professional of the Year (2017), Tourism Minister’s Young Achiever (2019) and most recently made the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australian List in 2022. She also was a TV host for a local travel show – Left Off the Map and Award Winning Tasmania.

A devoted mum to three children (a busy 7 year old boy, a son who died at 37 weeks gestation in January 2022 and a baby girl, Rani, born in August 2023) her lived experience with mental health and illness, baby loss, termination for medical reasons, grief, PTSD and trauma, inter-country adoption, racism, discrimination, leadership, hospitality, skills and training and more means she is a diverse person who’s most important values are kindness, honesty and compassion. She is currently upskilling in the trauma and grief area and hopes to turn these learnings into practical solutions for workplaces to consider.