Lavinia thinks she works at the best place in Canberra.
"I remember there was a thing where I got an award and I got up and I said, 'I work at the best place ever in Canberra'. Everybody looked at me funny and I was like, 'Seriously, you should come to my work, my work is really good'," she said.
This sort of reaction is common as Lavinia's workplace hasn't got the best reputation.
She is a nurse at Canberra's Dhulwa Mental Health Unit.
Dhulwa has been the subject of intense scrutiny. It's been marred by claims of violence, an inquiry which was scathing of governance at the unit and patient privacy breaches.
But staff at the facility are now speaking out and want their voices heard. They say they are passionate about their jobs and feel the negative publicity has affected how they are portrayed both with their patients and within the community.
A group of five staff spoke to The Canberra Times; their last names have been omitted by request.
'We're the healers'
Dhulwa, located in Symonston, is a forensic mental health unit providing care to mental health patients who have come into contact, or at a risk of, with the criminal justice system. The secure mental health unit was opened in 2017.
Lavinia said the name Dhulwa was gifted by Ngunnawal people and means honeysuckle.
"What it means is their vision, and what should be alongside ours from a cultural perspective, is the patient comes here for healing," she said.
"And I always remind people that our job and our role is to help them with their healing. We're the healers but it's their journey, we are just here to support them as they recover. We're just the people who are considered blessed to be able to help them during this time in their life."
But this is the side of Dhulwa that has never been told. Instead public discussions about Dhulwa have been dominated by workplace culture issues, alleged violence, alleged patient privacy breaches and an inquiry which found the unit had "poor standards of care delivery".
The inquiry, held last year and led by former Fair Work Commissioner Barbara Deegan, found the standard of care at Dhulwa was well below expectations, patient and treatment procedures were unclear and dysfunction between staff had contributed to a toxic work culture.
It found the model of care at the Symonston facility was unclear and uncertainty about security arrangements had contributed to safety concerns.
Ms Deegan made 25 recommendations for improvement, including a review of work health and safety policies, confirming the facility's model of care and independent oversight for the implementation of these recommendations. All recommendations were accepted by the territory government and are being implemented.
Lavinia said the inquiry had changed patient care within the unit.
"I think from the inquiry we've learnt to get the patient more involved in their care and we're doing something about it. We're not just looking at their record, we're actually being proactive and progressing with the way we're thinking," she said.
There have been changes, Elyce, a registered nurse, said.
"Now is so much different to those articles from last year. It's where we're going and where and the direction we're heading in is much more in line with how we should be looking after our consumers. That's what we should be focused on," she said.
'Absolutely not my experience here'
The government was prompted to commission the inquiry into Dhulwa following a campaign from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. The union came out in April 2022 to express concern at assaults within the unit.
The union claimed more than 100 assaults had taken place over a six-month period at the facility and said an unnamed nurse had likened work at the facility as being "sent into the killing fields".
But the inquiry found claims of violence were "inflated" and "exaggerated reporting" of this had damaged the reputation of the facility for both staff and consumers. The workers who spoke to The Canberra Times, with the permission of Canberra Health Services, said this had not been their experience.
Elyce said she "couldn't even possibly fathom" why the union had come out so strongly about the levels of assaults.
"I think a person identifying it as like the killing fields has clearly never been there and it would be insulting to people that had experienced it. It's absolutely not been my experience here as a nurse," she said.
Social worker Dinah said she had never felt scared coming into work.
"In my experience here, I've worked here since 2017, I've never felt scared to come into work," she said.
The inquiry found reports about the numbers of assaults were inflated. The report said in a six-year period there had been 403 incident reports lodged but there were multiple reports relating to the same incident.
The report said fewer than 15 of these incidents had resulted in an injury where a staff member had to take more than one day off work.
"The inflated claims and exaggerated reporting of occupational violence has damaged its reputation and had far-reaching consequences for both consumers and staff," the report said.
Some of the injuries experienced by staff at Dhulwa included losing consciousness after hitting their head on a concrete retaining wall, a fractured cheek bone and another almost lost a finger. The inquiry said incidents that had resulted in injury were due to poor work practices and not because of patients.
Privacy breaches
After the inquiry, a separate investigation by Canberra Health Services revealed there had been alleged breaches of privacy committed by staff working at Dhulwa.
The staff had allegedly leaked information about 13 patients over a period of years to the ANMF. The union has argued the disclosures were lawful as the information had been shared due to concerns around patient safety.
However, this view is completely at odds with Canberra Health Services who have said the alleged breaches could carry heavy criminal penalties.
Four staff from the unit have been stood down and two are being investigated. The matter is being investigated by police and the ACT Integrity Commission.
The allegations of patient privacy breaches has clearly affected the group.
"I think the big takeaway for me is that it was so disappointing. It was so disappointing that it happened and so disappointing that it happened over a number of years," Elyce said.
Lavinia said she felt all Dhulwa staff were tarnished with the same brush when it was revealed staff in the unit were responsible for the alleged leaks.
"I think it was annoying when people are trying to make it out like all Dhulwa staff are doing that," she said.
"I remember on the floor one of the patients said, 'How do we trust you'? And then we had to spend a lot of time trying to build up, we were already trying to build up our therapeutic relationship and having that in the newspaper, that was not good."
Dinah said other staff were not aware.
"We're only talking about a minority of people, a very small group of people did this so it wasn't as if other people were aware that it was going on or certainly weren't endorsing it or validating that because obviously a breach of privacy and confidentiality is just that, it's completely inappropriate, so it was a terrible shock to everybody," she said.
'It's not happening now'
Despite the negative publicity, there have been new starters at Dhulwa including Patience, a graduate registered nurse, and Andrew, a consultant and forensic psychiatrist. Both only started at Dhulwa over recent months and wanted to speak to The Canberra Times.
Patience said she did feel nervous before starting at Dhulwa, especially following the negative publicity but she said she felt incredibly supported.
"Being a new graduate it's scary starting a whole new career pathway after uni and I think having started and then hearing all of the things that go around or are in the media it was quite daunting," she said.
"I felt nervous and thought, 'What have I gotten myself into'. But I can say from day one that I've been here the nurses are incredibly supportive.
"We are supported every day in every possible way. There's a lot of teamwork and I think the people that come to work here they enjoy working here. Obviously, they are very passionate about helping the consumers and working with what the consumers need."
Andrew said the reports about Dhulwa were a "completely alien description" to what he had experienced in the three months working there. He said it was apparent to him the team had learnt a lot following the inquiry.
"I know there has been some uncertainty in the past about the purpose of Dhulwa and what kind of patients we could or should be looking after but we're pretty clear now in our mind that we look after forensic patients, so it's people that are either in contact with criminal justice services or at risk of coming into contact with criminal justice services," he said.
"It's a team that knows its purpose, we all come at problems and difficulties and challenges from different directions but we work together as a team and I enjoy coming into work so the stuff that I've heard from previously just doesn't have any resemblance to what I've seen.
"It's been frustrating for me and for the rest of the team because we've not been able to respond to that and put the record straight and I think the other thing to bear in mind is that this happened a little while ago, you know. It's not happening now."
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