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Courtesy Australian Aviation:

Podcast: Angela Garvey talks her GA mental health survey

written by Jessa Sargento | October 17, 2024




Angela Garvey recently won the Excellence Award at our Australian Aviation Summit, the title we grant to the overall winner from our nine individual categories.

However, she is best known for ‘Navigating Aviation’, a confidential counselling and support service she started following a fatal plane crash in her skydiving business in 2006.

More recently, she launched a mental health survey aimed at current and former employees working in the general aviation sector.


Here, she speaks to host Adam Thorn at this week’s Safeskies Conference in Canberra.

You can listen to the show on your device by clicking here. 

Plus via LinkedIn:

GROUNDBREAKING GENERAL AVIATION INDUSTRY SURVEY LAUNCHES IN AUSTRALIA - MEDIA RELEASE - 3rd October 2024


Angela Garvey - Navigating Aviation

Founder, Director of Navigating Aviation, Specialist Aviation Counsellor, Commercial Pilot, Airshow Display Pilot.
October 3, 2024

Navigating Aviation, in partnership with Bastion Insights, is launching a first-of-its-kind national survey this week to better understand the industry culture and mental health and wellbeing of workers in the general aviation industry.

The ‘National General Aviation Culture and Wellbeing Survey’ will be open to the entire Australian general aviation industry over the next four weeks, targeting both current and former workers across all sectors of the industry.

Angela Garvey, Director and Founder of Navigating Aviation, is a specialist aviation counsellor and commercial pilot with over 35 years of experience and also winner of two awards at this year’s Australian Aviation Awards - Female Aviation Leader of the Year (Small Business) and the overall Excellence Award.

She said that the survey is vital for gaining insights into the culture of the industry, helping to ensure the future health and wellbeing of aviation workers, students, and apprentices - and that it is long overdue.

“It’s not only about ensuring appropriate and accessible support following serious events like an aircraft incident, it also involves addressing the unique psychosocial hazards of the aviation industry,” Ms Garvey said.

“This can be achieved by equipping businesses and management to better recognise and manage these psychosocial hazards, much like a safety management system, and in accordance with their obligations under the Workplace Health and Safety Act.”

Ms Garvey also said this is not just another survey, but a call to action to benefit the entire industry.

One of the goals of gaining further insights into the industry through the survey is to ensure that aviation workers have access to the support and resources they need throughout their careers and can utilise these without fear of judgment or repercussions from either employers or regulatory bodies.

This includes all workers whether they are students, pilots, engineers, apprentices, support crew or business owners.
The survey is being conducted as part of the Women in The Aviation Industry Initiative, which was established in 2019 and is administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. The initiative supports a range of activities to enhance visibility and awareness of the sector among women and girls.

In addition, the survey is supported by the General Aviation Advisory Network (GAAN) which provides advice to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport on matters affecting the General Aviation (GA) sector.

The GAAN promotes policies that support a strong, sustainable and effective general aviation sector, encourages the uplift of the sector’s image and to make it an employer of choice.

The GAAN Chair, Andrew Andersen, acknowledges that this worthwhile research is a first in the aviation industry and the importance of the findings that it will provide.

“This research would provide valuable data about the mental health and wellbeing of workers in the general aviation sector,” Mr Andersen said.

“For these reasons, the GAAN supports the survey and encourages the participation of everyone eligible to respond.”
Findings from the study will be publicly available at the end of 2024 and will be used by several stakeholders to advocate for policy reform and break down stigmas associated with mental health and diversity in the aviation sector.

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY

-ENDS-

MTF...P2