What works for recruitment, retention and wellbeing in rural mental health in turbulent times?:Sharing education, research and practice implications

In this presentation, we share the results from our 2024-2025 research funded by NSW Health through The Peregrine Centre as part of the Rural Mental Health Partnership Grant. Rural mental health services are experiencing severe workforce shortages and staff turnover rates. Within this context, we asked NGO staff about what they have seen work regarding recruitment, retention, and staff wellbeing in their sector. We identified strategies that inform grassroots approaches to promoting recruitment, retention, and wellbeing, including engaging with the unique character of rural communities; consistently supporting staff; impacting structures by growing organisational culture; providing incentives; engaging widely locally; and nurturing local people’s skills. In our presentation, we will describe actions that have been successful in promoting recruitment and promoting, retention and wellbeing in rural NSW. We will explain how we will be including the knowledge generated from the research into our teaching about human services. Additionally, the project's impact on practitioners, including lived experience workers, will be shared. We hope the results, which are co-produced, will contribute to the development of transformative rural mental health workplaces in turbulent times, with positive implications for social workers including students, human service workers, health practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. <br/>