Improving the Mental Wellbeing of Regional Frontline Workers. The Case for Collaboration and Interagency Partnerships
Tracks
Royal Poinciana - In-Person Only
| Monday, March 3, 2025 |
| 1:55 PM - 2:15 PM |
| Royal Poinciana |
Overview
Paul McFarlane, Converge
Presenter
Paul McFarlane
General Manager Onsite Services
Converge
Improving the Mental Wellbeing of Regional Frontline Workers. The Case for Collaboration and Interagency Partnerships
Presentation Overview
For many regional and remote frontline workers and their families, getting access to proactive mental health support has become almost impossible. The NSW Mental Health Commission recently reported that only 22% of regional and rural NSW residents report good access to mental health services. This comes at a time when regional first responders have been disproportionately impacted by bushfires, catastrophic flooding, drought, spiraling cost of living impacts and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
What regional frontline workers are desperately asking for is for mental health support to be available in their own communities where they live, as well as opportunities for their families to access wellbeing support.
With over 60 years’ experience in supporting first responder mental health and wellbeing across regional and remote Australia, Converge has learned many valuable lessons about wellbeing approaches that can positively shift the wellbeing of frontline workers and their families.
This presentation will outline some of the innovative models of care that have been developed to support Government agencies servicing regional and remote communities and explore ways in which these models can be extended to the families of frontline workers. Case studies will be shared which demonstrate how these models work and the potential to multiply these benefits if government agencies were to collaborate and collectively support frontline workers serving in a community.
This session will demonstrate that when first responder organisations and workplace mental health providers work in partnership, improving mental health outcomes for first responders is possible in regional and remote communities.
Presentation Key Learnings:
1. Discover the surprising mental health models that already exist in many regional communities but are not functioning to their full capacity.
2. Explore ways that these wellbeing models can be leveraged through collaborative partnerships to provide proactive support for frontline workers and their families.
3. Learn strategies that can potentially be used to ensure better access to mental health clinicians in regional communities.
What regional frontline workers are desperately asking for is for mental health support to be available in their own communities where they live, as well as opportunities for their families to access wellbeing support.
With over 60 years’ experience in supporting first responder mental health and wellbeing across regional and remote Australia, Converge has learned many valuable lessons about wellbeing approaches that can positively shift the wellbeing of frontline workers and their families.
This presentation will outline some of the innovative models of care that have been developed to support Government agencies servicing regional and remote communities and explore ways in which these models can be extended to the families of frontline workers. Case studies will be shared which demonstrate how these models work and the potential to multiply these benefits if government agencies were to collaborate and collectively support frontline workers serving in a community.
This session will demonstrate that when first responder organisations and workplace mental health providers work in partnership, improving mental health outcomes for first responders is possible in regional and remote communities.
Presentation Key Learnings:
1. Discover the surprising mental health models that already exist in many regional communities but are not functioning to their full capacity.
2. Explore ways that these wellbeing models can be leveraged through collaborative partnerships to provide proactive support for frontline workers and their families.
3. Learn strategies that can potentially be used to ensure better access to mental health clinicians in regional communities.
Biography
With over 25 years' experience in the emergency services and health care industries, Paul now brings his extensive workplace wellbeing experience to his role as General Manager - Onsite Wellbeing Services, at workplace mental health provider, Converge.
Under Paul’s leadership, Converge has embedded Wellbeing Consultants into more than 450 workplaces around Australia. The team provide accessible mental health care to employees as they navigate the challenges and complexity of our current times.
Paul is passionate about helping people to thrive and ensuring that best practice mental health and wellbeing care is available to the Australian workforce wherever they are located!
