A well-supported aftercare workforce is more effective in helping people recover. Provide the necessary resources and support to help maintain their wellbeing.
Fostering a supportive and positive work environment will contribute to worker wellbeing, overall satisfaction and retention.1
Develop a comprehensive mental health and wellbeing strategy with, and for, your aftercare workforce. Include strategies to address:
- vicarious trauma
- burnout
- the unique demands on staff who are supporting people in their recovery.
Consider the following to support worker wellbeing. This is in addition to standard employee supports, such as managerial structures and the Employee Assistance Program.
Understanding lived and living experience
Acknowledge that any employee (even if not employed as a peer worker) may have lived and living experience of suicide.
The role of team leaders and managers is to provide trauma-informed guidance. They will need to complete training to understand how to support staff with lived and living experience of suicide, and those working closely with people who are experiencing suicidality.
Staying connected
Encourage and support your workforce to network with colleagues and peers who understand the experience of supporting people in recovery. This is especially important for peer workers and people with lived and living experience, who should be connected to broader peer networks.
Aftercare providers can also connect with relevant communities of practice. Facilitating group debriefing is an effective way to do this.
Reflective practice
Reflective practice focuses on the needs and wellbeing of the employee. It is an opportunity to reflect and debrief on challenges, successes and ways to work effectively with consumers.
Undertake reflective practice monthly. These activities can be provided by appropriately trained and experienced internal staff or sourced externally. If budget is limited, draw on local partnerships, e.g. the workforce within the local health district or specialty health network.
More on reflective practice, the different ways to do this (including group debriefing) and who should be providing this service.
In practice
An aftercare service provider in Far West NSW engages an external clinical provider who offers reflective practice support sessions to staff. This is an opportunity for staff to debrief to support their own mental health and wellbeing, or discuss approaches to individual consumer care.
Staff have access to the provider as often as fortnightly or monthly, at minimum. This may be a solution when recruitment and retention of clinically skilled staff is difficult, particularly in rural areas.
References
- Scanlan JN, Still M, Radican J, et al. Workplace Experiences of Mental Health Consumer Peer Workers in New South Wales, Australia: A Survey Study Exploring Job Satisfaction, Burnout and Turnover Intention. BMC Psychiatry. 2020;20:270.