This presentation highlights the critical need to prioritise the mental strength and emotional resilience of rural mental healthcare workers. Practical insights into recognising and responding to practitioner stress responses, fostering resilience, and enhancing mental strength through tailored mind-body practices, will be provided.

Alarmingly, recent studies show high rates of practitioner burnout and mental health issues, with approximately 50% of workers across Australia and New Zealand affected. Symptoms include depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. When practitioner wellbeing is compromised, the services provided to clients can be significantly impacted. The escalating challenges faced by those working in rural areas underscore the urgency for a comprehensive and systemic approach to support the mental, emotional, and physical health of the workforce.

There is a pressing need to move beyond self-care approaches to intentionally building mental fitness. Like a muscle, mental strength needs to be developed and strengthened over time through intentional, focused and conscious practice. Focusing on evidence-based insights into the role of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology in understanding professional wellbeing, this presentation explores the intricate interplay between the brain, nervous system, mind and body. By recognising conscious and unconscious stress responses, and how stress becomes embodied, we can lay the foundations for increasing resilience.

A systemic and organisational commitment to individual and whole team mental strength can significantly reduce emotional overwhelm, prevent burnout and increase workforce sustainability. A planned approach, which incorporates mind-body practices into daily work schedules, is vital for increasing professional wellbeing. Grounded in principles of neuroscience and interpersonal biology, this presentation outlines tangible tools and techniques that mental healthcare workers can integrate into their daily routines, such as formal and informal mindfulness practices and developing holistic mental strength fitness plans. An overview of Mental Strength Fitness Training, recently delivered across rural locations for mental healthcare workers, will be presented.

Three Key Learnings

1. Address the urgency for increasing the mental strength and resilience of rural mental healthcare workers by providing training in intentional mind-body practices.
2. Provide evidence-based understandings of the role of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology in professional wellbeing.
3. Provide a practical approach to increasing mental strength and emotional resilience through the development of a holistic Mental Strength Fitness Plan.