Care and Support Mental Health Resources

The mental health and wellbeing of the care workforce has been exacerbated as a result of the COVID pandemic, leading to high rates of stress, burnout and mental health challenges for workers.

This project delivered a suite of visual products which raise awareness and help support the wellbeing of workers in the residential care, home care and disability sectors as well as introduce key concepts of trauma-informed care.

Overview

The Care and Support Mental Health Resources project produced resources which:

• raise awareness of best practice approaches to supporting worker wellbeing and delivering trauma-informed services,
• aimed at both workers and leaders, particularly those who have a line management roles or supervisory duties
• are accessible and succinct enough to be accessed by staff that are under-resourced. This includes using audio-visual content and simple written materials.

The resources provide key messages related to individual and team factors that impact on employee wellbeing, describe best practice approaches to managing workplace stress, including the impacts of working with trauma and grief impacted people.

This is particularly important because the majority of care recipients accessing home care or disability support will have experienced trauma and have had to manage issues related to loss and grief. Direct trauma exposure, such as occupational violence and aggression is also common in caring and health related industries.

The resources also provide practical examples of trauma informed practice and its benefits to increase awareness and motivation to implement trauma informed care. With trauma-informed practices, research demonstrates that many of these practices are an important part of protecting the mental health of workers in frontline roles.

The project used a co-design approach, which meant the resources were developed in consultation with stakeholders from the aged care and disability sectors to ensure they meet the needs of each sector.

The resources are now available here. We encourage the distribution and sharing of all resources through respective organisations and networks for use in your work places, websites and social media.