Page 3515 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 October 2022

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(3) Given that a 7 June RiotAct article quoted a staff member as saying, “the support they are offering now needs to be 24/7 and 365 days of the year. We experience trauma every day and staff are devastated”, what specific measures are being considered to improve trauma support for staff and when will those measures be implemented.

Ms Stephen-Smith: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

1) The feedback from staff was received via a Canberra Health Services’ (CHS) Staff Wellbeing Survey that was conducted from 6 June – 4 July 2022. The purpose of the survey was to ask staff about improving wellbeing supports for the CHS workforce. The Survey received 331 responses, with feedback comprising more than 1,700 qualitative data points across support, prevention and promotion themes.

2) a) and b)

The CHS Staff Wellbeing Symposium was held on 1 August 2022. I attended along with the Minister for Mental Health, 130 CHS staff and other key stakeholders. The purpose of the Symposium was to:

build knowledge and understanding of wellbeing in the workplace with experts in the wellbeing field,

identify what a mentally healthy healthcare workplace looks like,

identify the role staff play and how they can contribute to a mentally healthy workplace in partnership with the organisation,

discuss risk and protective factors and what support is available.

Feedback from staff showed the Symposium provided a greater understanding of the supports available, specifically for professional groups and was considered to be valuable. 92 per cent of Symposium respondents said they would participate in another wellbeing symposium or event.

The Staff Wellbeing Survey feedback has also been used to inform a number of activities and 150 staff have volunteered to be involved. The first Staff Wellbeing Forum was held on 31 August 2022. The purpose of the Forum was to:

Share the feedback from the Wellbeing Survey, identifying themes, objectives, and key recommendations;

Provide a summary of current CHS Staff Wellbeing Strategy and initiatives; and

Establish working groups to co-design wellbeing initiatives.

Twelve multidisciplinary Working Groups have been established and all have now developed wellbeing activities/actions for implementation. The second Staff Wellbeing Forum was held on 18 October 2022. All working group members were invited to attend the Forum to share the 12 actions that have been developed and to vote on priority actions to be implemented within the next three months.

The promotion of a Wellbeing Boost, providing funding for teams at the unit level to improve health and wellbeing, was open from 5 – 21 September 2022. The purpose of the Wellbeing Boost is to increase engagement with health and wellbeing across CHS.

On 4 October 2022, the Wellbeing and Recovery Fund was announced providing funding of $8.75 million towards improving wellbeing across the health services of


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