Supporting the Chronic and Complex Care Team

Kirsty Barnes (pictured front right) is the Divisional Director of the Chronic and Complex Care Team. She reflects on the team’s experience during the most recent wave of COVID-19 and how important it was to seek care for staff.

The Chronic and Complex Care team provide a hospital- like experience for patients, so -they can receive care at home, at a time and place that suits them. 

The team delivers customised care, highly dependent on patient needs and preferences.

It consists of Nursing, Medical and Allied Health staff and a number of other specialties, including Renal and Endocrinology.  During the most recent wave, the team was supported with extra employees redeployed from many different areas.

“This COVID-19 wave was very different compared to the first wave. The first two waves, whilst very demanding in terms of numbers of patients and homes and care facilities, was very emotionally demanding.   

The team were much more prepared to meet the demands of this wave, however, it was a very different experience for them.  We found it to be much more physically exhausting, with many longer hours of work, and the work was hard, due to our existing fatigue levels.

It was all hands-on deck with the number of patients in the community going up by 50 – 100 new referrals per day, which peaked at 125 referrals in just one day.

We were building the plane, while flying it. 

We recognised we were a big aircraft and had the structures and supports around us to keep the plane flying.

As leaders we were there supporting the staff each day.

When the pressure on staff continued to build and we knew how hard everyone was working, we realised that we couldn’t do it all ourselves. 

Thinking about what we learnt in the previous wave around fatigue and burnout, we knew we needed to do more to care for our team.

We contacted the Workplace Strategy and Wellbeing team for several things; hampers and goodie bags to boost morale, even meals for the teams out on the road, who didn’t have time to stop to get food.  

We also wanted to make sure everyone understood and was equipped to recognise and manage their own stress and coping levels, so we had Psychologist Jo Wintle run sessions on effectively managing stress and building resilience. 

To make sure the leadership team was well equipped to respond and be there for their teams, and each other, we had a session on areas of focus, strengths and challenges ahead, and developed an action plan for the response. 

The Aged Care Leadership Team also participated in a session on understanding burnout and developing team strategies to reduce that risk.  One of our other team members was also lucky enough to receive one of the weekly Wellbeing raffles.

The Wellbeing Team also facilitated stress stocktakes with WH’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) partners Caraniche, who provide psychological support, which was a great way for a team to regroup after being out on the road, share their experiences and feel good, knowing they had provided really good care to those in need.

We are currently working through a staff survey; however, initial responses have been really positive. 

Our teams have reported feeling well supported and orientated. We know that some couldn’t wait to get their lunch boxes, and the little treats and goodies along the way were a real bonus. 

Knowing that the leaders could access help and support and work together to plan our best response with the help from the Wellbeing Team, was reassuring.  

It is great to know that you can get extra help when you need it, and that the help is customised to meet your needs.”