Regional health and aged care providers in Western Australia's north say frontline staff are grappling with "extreme burnout" due to increased workloads, vicarious trauma, and a high number of unfilled job vacancies.
The number of positions advertised in aged care and allied and primary health has skyrocketed across the region, as providers try to address a backlog of vacancies resulting from the pandemic.
Organisations say they are struggling to recruit workers due to a lack of housing, widely publicised issues with youth crime and a shortage of specialist staff to relieve existing workers.
'Huge level of strain'
Boab Health Services is a not-for-profit charity which provides primary health care services in allied health, mental health and care coordination in the Kimberley.
Chief executive Matt Burrows says the difficulties filling the high number of job vacancies in the region has been particularly difficult post-pandemic, putting a "huge level of strain" on existing health staff.
"What happens when positions aren't filled? Well, less services are delivered, and people do try to make that up in a team environment," he said.
"That means doing even more than they're currently doing and increasing the strain on them and it's not a long-term solution.
"We are certainly recruiting but that level of vacancy adds to the strain that your existing staff are facing."
Mr Burrows says specialist allied health positions such as podiatry and dietetics are particularly difficult to fill.
Locums plugging gaps
According to online job agency Seek, the number of health and medical positions advertised on its website has doubled in four years across the Kimberley.
In 2018, there were 100 healthcare and medical positions advertised in the region. That number reached 200 in July 2022.
In the same period, the number of aged and disability support workers, and aged care nursing vacancies almost tripled, from 100 in 2018 to 296 in July this year.
Aged care provider Juniper has been relying on a rotation of expensive locums to staff its five aged care homes across the Kimberley.
Juniper's executive director of people and culture Bill McDonald said while staffing remote residential facilities in the Kimberley was difficult prior to the pandemic, it had become even more challenging in 2022.
"Pre-COVID, the numbers of staff that we have across the Kimberley would have been about 110, the numbers we now have is around 65," he said.
"The rest of the positions are still being filled, but they're being filled by agency staff who are coming in from Perth or they're coming from other capital cities and they're flying in and out."
More tired, more stressed
Rohan Rasiah is an associate professor at the West Australian Centre for Rural Health.
He said worker shortages across rural and remote areas such as the Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfields were putting "a lot of pressure" on existing health professionals.
"A lot of people working in rural and remote health sector are very dedicated people and they want to do well over 100 per cent service delivery," he said.
"When staffing is short and with the impact of COVID due to people being sick, there's obviously coverage that needs to occur as a result.
"That puts more pressure on the system and those individuals which makes them more tired and stressed and as a result ... there's that increase in mental workload on those staff."
The long game
Dr Rasiah said incentivising health professionals to live and settle in regional communities would help prevent the revolving door of workers through the regions.
"The budget cycle for primary health care in chronic disease and mental health is a very short cycle," he said.
"I think longer contracts will ensure a bit more security for people and then people will embark on maybe trying to buy houses or having a long-term lease.
"They could stay in their community and become part of community, which is one of the things we're always trying to do ... deliver their services but also enjoy their time in rural and remote WA."
