In the Southern and Murrumbidgee Local Health District (LHD) areas of NSW, rural NGO mental health staff face overwhelming challenges. Tight budgets, chronic staff shortages, complex caseloads, and an ever-increasing demand for services.
In the face of it all, committed staff are finding innovative ways to respond to long-standing sector-wide difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified staff in rural areas.
While the roots of these problems are well-understood and acknowledged by policymakers, frontline workers and researchers alike, less attention has been paid to the solutions.
To better understand what’s working on the ground, a multidisciplinary team from Charles Sturt University, funded by NSW Health through the Peregrine Centre, brought together frontline rural mental health workers in a co-operative inquiry project. Over eight one-hour sessions between late 2024 and early 2025, participants shared their experiences and collaborated to gather practical strategies that have been effectively used to strengthen recruitment, retention, and staff wellbeing.
Participants described proactive recruitment strategies that show the importance of being visible and involved in their communities — whether through volunteering, casual conversations, or local events. For instance, Natasha from Centacare described how supporting community events like children’s parties “helps promote our services and spread joy.”
Participants also stressed hiring for the right fit, not just the right resume. Rural living experience, team compatibility, and emotional intelligence were crucial considerations. Louise, from 54 Reasons, captured it perfectly: “Community service workers need to be able to care for each other and look out for each other.”
Significantly, our research highlighted the often-underappreciated role of supporting staff wellbeing in positive retention outcomes. Here, simple, cost-effective solutions were highly valued. Staff shared the importance of regular check-ins, flexible job design, ongoing supervision, and team lunches to build connection and ease professional isolation.
Our conversations revealed how seriously these workers, and their organisations take staff wellbeing. Managers role-modelled self-care and respected work hours. Such simple approaches emerged as key strategies to boost morale and to support retention.
Equally important was minimising burnout. To combat burnout and manage risk, teams are working together to share responsibility and support one another emotionally. “No one person holds the weight of a high-risk client alone,” explained Johanna from the Wagga Wagga Women’s Health Network.
Despite the deeply systemic roots of Australia’s rural mental health staffing shortages, this study highlights the central role played by resilient, dedicated, and resourceful frontline staff who care deeply about their work and their communities.
Rather than wait for solutions from above, these workers are creating them in their everyday actions and decisions, showcasing their values and protecting their workforce. More than a list of strategies, participants shared a way of being in their workplaces and of relating to one another and to the community.
The pilot study has become a window into what’s working. It also showed that frontline workers need more support, more funding, and more recognition.
Our research joins existing calls to transform the sector through longer-term funding and better working conditions. We add that staff wellbeing is crucial to recruitment and retention initiatives and advocate for additional wellbeing funding to reflect this.
We invite you to explore the collectively produced strategies from this pilot research project in our Industry Report and Fact Sheet collection, which capture these details in full.
Finally, we are pleased to announce that our research has been extended to cover the Far West and Northern LHD areas of NSW, thanks to NSW Health via the Peregrine Centre. We look forward to reporting on the outcomes and to the possibility of further scaling up the solutions.
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