About Psychosocial Hazards & Safety Australia
Psychosocial Hazards & Safety Australia is a specialist education and advisory partnership focused on preventing psychological injury, reducing human-factor risk and improving safety outcomes in complex workplaces.
Combined Professional History
Category
Years of Practice
Core Expertise
Accreditation & Recognition
Government & Public Sector Engagement
Sectors Served
Documentation Available
Psychosocial Hazards & Safety Australia
40+ years combined senior practice
Psychosocial hazard identification, trauma exposure, human-factor risk in operational settings
UK CPD-accredited programme (Panacea Pause)
Documented ministerial invitations and departmental meetings (2000–2025)
Health, justice, corporate, emergency services, aquatic and outdoor operations
Records retained for procurement and audit review
Kym Akers: Human Risk & Operational Safety
40+ years (qualified 1984)
Sports medicine-informed training, aquatic operations, emergency response, disability, veterans, equine and terrain risk
Full Recognition of Prior Learning (Fitlink); St John Ambulance; Queensland Ambulance Service; Royal Life Saving
Fitness industry gaps; diving and snorkelling fatalities; exercise and ageing
Disability services, veterans, over-55s programmes, workforce training, corporate
Employer letters, RPL documentation, operational history
Michelle Rowlinson: Hormonal Health & Psychosocial Risk
25+ years (professional practice since 2000)
Perimenopause & menopause, hormone–stress interaction, neurodiversity, workplace psychosocial safety
UK CPD-accredited education; Qualified Physiotherapist; NHS-delivered education
Menopause education reform; workforce policy; Indigenous engagement
NHS, Department for Work & Pensions, correctional facilities, Australian public sector
NHS references, ministerial correspondence
Meet The Team
Kym Akers
Sports Medicine & Applied Human Risk Experience
Kym Akers has been formally qualified and practising as a personal trainer with sports-medicine-informed training since 1984, predating the Certificate III and IV fitness framework by more than two decades. Her professional standing was established prior to modern vocational packaging and has remained continuous across fitness, sports medicine–informed training, emergency response, aquatic, disability, corporate, government, equine and outdoor risk environments. This foundation underpins all current education and applied human risk work.
Human Risk, Operational Safety & Sports Medicine Practice
Kym has been formally qualified and practising since 1984 in sports medicine-informed training and emergency-aware environments, predating the Certificate III and IV framework by more than two decades.
She was qualified, insured and practising before the modern vocational packaging system existed and holds rare Full Recognition of Prior Learning (Fitlink), recognising senior standing rather than entry-level skills acquisition.
Her background includes decades of structured human movement across ballet, gymnastics, martial arts, skating and competitive dance. This foundation built an applied understanding of posture, load tolerance, fatigue, injury risk and stress response long before these principles entered standardised fitness curricula.
Kym’s early exposure to Australia’s ocean-based diving culture in the 1970s, followed by work in commercial dive operations in Cairns, informs a clear professional position: controlled environments do not adequately prepare individuals for real-world panic, environmental stress or cognitive shutdown under pressure.
Her cross-sector work includes:
Adults with disability
Vietnam veterans and trauma-exposed populations
Over-55s community strength and balance programmes
Youth athletes competing internationally
Certificate III and IV workforce delivery
Corporate risk environments in Melbourne and Brisbane
She has been invited into government and departmental processes regarding:
Fitness industry gaps
Exercise and ageing
High numbers of deaths in scuba diving and snorkelling
Workforce and training reform
Her equine and remote terrain experience extends her applied risk understanding into uncontrolled environments where fear response and imbalance materially affect safety.
Michelle Rowlinson
Hormonal Health, Menopause & Psychosocial Risk
Michelle Rowlinson is a senior musculoskeletal physiotherapist, menopause and wellbeing practitioner, educator and author specialising in the intersection of hormonal health, nervous system regulation and workplace performance.
She is the founder of Panacea Pause, a CPD-accredited education and training programme that integrates hormonal health, stress physiology and psychosocial risk awareness within modern workplaces.
Michelle’s work bridges clinical rehabilitation, behavioural science and organisational wellbeing. She supports organisations to understand how hormonal change, chronic stress exposure, fatigue, trauma load and neurodiversity can materially affect cognition, emotional regulation, decision-making and workforce retention.
Her expertise spans:
Perimenopause and menopause within workplace and organisational contexts
Hormone–stress–fatigue interaction and nervous system regulation
Sleep disruption, cognitive variability and executive function changes
The impact of cumulative stress load on hormonal stability and performance
How menopause affects neurodiverse women, particularly those with ADHD and autism
Inclusive hormonal health education for transgender and non-binary individuals
Whole-person wellbeing, including nutrition, movement, exercise prescription, mindset, stress management, mind–body connection and evidence-informed holistic approaches
She is also:
Best Selling Author of "You, Me Conquering Perimenopause & menopause"
Podcast host of Menopause – The Real Deal, where she cuts through misinformation and delivers honest, evidence-informed conversations about hormonal health, performance and wellbeing for women and organisations.
Early Safety, First Aid and Diving Culture
From early childhood, Kym was exposed to Australia’s early recreational scuba diving culture of the 1970s, where safety, environmental realism and respect for ocean conditions were central to operations. Due to her very young age at the time, Kym was not herself diving; however, ocean-based safety thinking, emergency awareness and first-aid culture formed part of daily life from early childhood. This exposure shaped a lifelong intolerance for complacency, checklist-only training and artificial environments that fail under real-world stress.
Lifelong Human Movement Foundation
Kym’s professional capability is supported by decades of structured physical training, including:
Ballet
Gymnastics
Figure ice skating
National-level ballroom dancing
Martial arts, including Judo, Jujitsu
This background developed an advanced understanding of posture, balance, joint loading, fatigue, injury risk and stress response long before these concepts entered mainstream fitness education.
Government & Ministerial Engagement
The following reflects documented invitations, meetings and formal correspondence. Listing does not imply endorsement.
Sports Medicine and Fitness Practice
Kym was already qualified, insured and practising in sports-medicine-informed fitness work by 1984. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s her work included strength and conditioning, injury-aware programming, female physiology and body image, fatigue management, and group and individual training across age groups.
In 1985, she completed the Exerfit Instructor’s Course, covering strength training, female body composition, body image and sports injuries. Original documentation was later destroyed in flooding; however, this qualification was formally recognised and upgraded during the 1990s, and its completion is supported by subsequent professional recognition and employer evidence.
Full Recognition of Prior Learning
Kym was assessed by Fitlink and granted FULL Recognition of Prior Learning, acknowledging senior competence established long before modern frameworks. Employer letters and operational history were accepted as primary evidence. No retraining was required, confirming professional standing rather than entry-level skills acquisition.
First Aid and Emergency Response
Kym holds extensive emergency response training, including St John Ambulance First Aid (Melbourne), Queensland Ambulance Service Senior First Aid, and Royal Life Saving Society resuscitation. While some certification was pool-based, her operational experience was not.
Year / Date
2000
2004
2017
19 Feb 2025
2025
2025
2025
5 Jun 2025
5 Jun 2025
Office / Individual
Queensland Minister Judy Spence
Minister of Health, Japan
Queensland Minister Grace Grace
Office of Senator Malarndirri McCarthy
Assistant Minister Ged Kearney
Minister Jodie Harrison
Alex Allars
Queensland Public Sector Commission
Victorian Department of Health
Context
Queensland fitness industry gaps
Exercise and ageing
High numbers of deaths in scuba diving and snorkelling
Menopause education and Indigenous engagement
Workforce and menopause education correspondence invitation
Workforce and menopause education reform
Workforce and training engagement
Workplace and policy gaps
Workplace and policy gaps
