Rural communities face unique and varied challenges, albeit often alongside incredible beauty and connection. Limited access to services and resources exacerbates the impact upon mental wellbeing. Clinicians, leaders, and support services are often battling dysfunctional systems in isolation, unable to facilitate or provide what people need most. Moral injury has escalated in recent years as multifactorial barriers prevent adequate service provision, leaving clinicians feeling demoralised and frustrated. The risk of vicarious trauma increases as we support clients with rising complex challenges, in the context of inadequate clinician support. Overall, we are seeing a growing number of burnt-out clinicians, leaders, and people from every sector of our population. Rural locations have big risk factors for burnout, and this impacts on professional capacity, work hours, and career longevity, which all pose a risk to further escalation of pre-existing rural mental health challenges.

Over the last decade of supporting people to recover from burnout, it has been encouraging to witness people go from rock bottom to regaining a sense of professional fulfillment and personal wellbeing. It is possible, with good support and guidance. It’s vital that we prioritise quality support for rural mental health workers so that we can have a sustainable workforce over the long-term. We can identify the strong preventative factors within a rural community, and leverage those as part of individual and community-wide wellbeing strategies.

Mental wellbeing and burnout prevention for our rural mental health workforce must be a priority so that we can retain people who can thrive in the community personally and professionally.

Three key learnings:
1. Burnout in a rural context: causes, recognition, and management, as well as self-reflection of attendees
2. Addressing moral injury within the Australian health system and in rural areas, and how individuals can respond to moral injury in a manner which supports sustainable practice.
3. The impact of vicarious trauma upon mental health workers, and strategies to reduce this impact.