Occupational disruption, workplace support and crisis preparedness

We are pleased to welcome Associate Professor Natasha Smallwood and Professor Karen Willis back for another webinar after their very popular session at the People Summit Australia to share more findings and learnings from their Australian COVID-19 Frontline Health Workers Study.

Drawing from the qualitative experiences from the thousands of respondents to their study, this webinar aims to address the following key areas:

• The immense psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health workers, with high levels of anxiety, depression and burnout across the workforce, and some groups more at risk
• The occupational disruptions health workers experienced with the changed working hours, redeployment, altered work roles, new patient care practices and rapid adoption of digital technologies
• What are the protective factors against workers experiencing occupation-related mental health issues?
• What do healthcare workers need the most during a crisis from their employers?

It is a great opportunity to understand the impact of the pandemic on your staff as well as your peers, and to gain some insights on how you can protect and support them during crisis.

The Australian COVID-19 Frontline Health Workers Study, conducted by Associate Prof. Natasha Smallwood and Prof. Karen Willis during the second wave of the pandemic in August to October 2020, is the largest national-wide study aiming at understanding the psychological and social impact of the COVID-19 on the Australian frontline healthcare workers in all health areas.

Over 9500 healthcare staff took part in the study, making it the largest, multi-professional study in the world, the study provides valuable insights into the social, occupational and mental health effects experiences by frontline health workers, and help paint a picture on how to provide support for our health workers during the crisis and to better prepare for future crisis.

During People Summit Australia, Prof. Natasha and Prof. Karen presented the study results for the first time, you can watch the session by requesting access to the on-demand hub here.