Psychosocial hazards
Psychosocial hazards are aspects of work design or conditions that can cause psychological harm - including exposure to violence and aggression, traumatic events, and remote or isolated work.
Safety law has caught up with what frontline teams always knew: harm is not only physical. Australian WHS regulations now explicitly require employers to manage psychosocial hazards, and the published lists put exposure to occupational violence, traumatic events, and remote or isolated work near the top.
Lone work appears in the psychosocial framework twice. Isolation itself is listed as a hazard - low support, nobody nearby when something goes wrong - and the fear that follows an aggressive incident is a recognised harm even when no physical injury occurred. A worker who no longer feels safe doing home visits has suffered a work-related harm.
Practical controls overlap heavily with physical-safety controls: reliable ways to summon help, response that actually arrives, and evidence for workers that the system behind them works. Confidence is a control: teams report that carrying a monitored device changes how safe the work feels, not just how safe it is.