Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / Support Worker Burnout in Australia: Signs, Causes & How NDIS Providers Can Stop Losing Their Best People

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Support Worker Burnout in Australia: Signs, Causes & How NDIS Providers Can Stop Losing Their Best People · Sarah Knows Support Workers

• 0:00
  It's Sarah here. Look, I'm going solo today
• 0:02
  because this is a topic that I had to bring to your attention
• 0:05
  and I couldn't let it sit for longer because I saw the
• 0:08
  statistics and thought that didn't feel right.
• 0:10
  And then the more research and stuff that I did into it, I
• 0:13
  thought I have to bring it to you guys.
• 0:15
  So let's talk today about support worker burnout.
• 0:18
  I'm not going to give you the LinkedIn crap that you're all
• 0:20
  used to listening to the you know that not that self-care
• 0:25
  drink water version. No, I'm going to give you the
• 0:27
  real version and the real version of events and things
• 0:30
  that have happened in my in the sector for the last 17 years
• 0:32
  that I've witnessed and things that I know as a manager at my
• 0:36
  times and at my peaks that I could have improved on, but also
• 0:40
  things that I knew that worked. So at the end of this podcast, I
• 0:42
  hope you get to come back with a few things that you 2 can use.
• 0:46
  And please put it in the comment section if I have missed
• 0:49
  something that you do to support support workers.
• 0:52
  All right, so we know that support workers go above and
• 0:55
  beyond and often they're the ones that burn out the fastest,
• 0:59
  the quickest, and the saddest part out of all this time is
• 1:04
  that they're never really thanked for it.
• 1:06
  All right, let me deep dive into this because I blew my mind.
• 1:09
  Ready. So across Australia, the
• 1:11
  disability, the disability workforce has one of the highest
• 1:16
  rates of any sector for turnover.
• 1:19
  And currently it's showing around like 1725% of support
• 1:22
  workers leave the workforce every year.
• 1:25
  And some reports are saying that like 60%, I mean, 60% of our
• 1:29
  current support worker workforce are thinking about leaving or
• 1:34
  they're thinking about other sectors because the burnout
• 1:38
  conditions are too high for them.
• 1:40
  So almost and almost 43% of support workers feel burnt out
• 1:45
  regularly. Let all that information sink in
• 1:48
  because we've got a workforce right now that says to me, alarm
• 1:51
  bells, red flag. So when people talk about having
• 1:54
  a workforce shortage, it's not just about the people that don't
• 1:58
  want to do the job. It's too many people are leaving
• 2:02
  our workforce to support people. So you're probably wondering
• 2:06
  what does burnout might look like for support workers?
• 2:09
  And in the disability sector, it doesn't happen overnight.
• 2:12
  And I'm like, I will put my hand on my heart and admit that,
• 2:15
  yeah, I've suffered some terrible burnout over my career
• 2:18
  in the disability sector. And one thing that I noticed is
• 2:22
  that we do care really deeply because we're empathetic people
• 2:25
  that work in support, support workers.
• 2:27
  We, we care so much for the people that we support.
• 2:30
  We celebrate their wins. We worry about their safety.
• 2:33
  We sit people through some of the biggest moments of their
• 2:36
  life, good but also bad as well. And sometimes we carry the
• 2:39
  emotions that nobody ever really talks about.
• 2:42
  And we, we're not open about it because it's so personal and
• 2:45
  private to the person that we support.
• 2:47
  So we talk about like we like, we should talk more about
• 2:51
  participant grief, whether a petition that we serve has
• 2:53
  passed away or no longer wanting our services as a support
• 2:57
  worker. We should talk about the
• 2:58
  conflict that the person that we serve has within their families
• 3:02
  because it can be quite emotionally draining to support
• 3:06
  somebody with a family that requires a lot more support.
• 3:10
  But it's also it's really difficult.
• 3:11
  And I know my period of time, so I have 17 years.
• 3:14
  So I have seen people when I have entered into a service and
• 3:18
  watch their health decline and decline graphically that they
• 3:21
  they pass away. So there is that grief and this
• 3:24
  emotion, it builds up and it does eat at you because there's
• 3:27
  people that have served that have passed away.
• 3:28
  And I think of them fondly, don't get me wrong, but you know
• 3:31
  it. It hurts because it's just
• 3:33
  somebody that we've, you know, we've always known and always
• 3:37
  been around. And for them to pass away, it
• 3:39
  does. It stings.
• 3:41
  It's like a part of you. It definitely stings.
• 3:43
  And it hurts my heart when I think about it.
• 3:45
  I shouldn't be all like tearing and crying about it, but yeah,
• 3:48
  it does it. In the time that I've worked in
• 3:51
  the sector, I worked a lot in the 1 to 1 space supporting
• 3:54
  people to have support workers come into their home.
• 3:56
  And I can tell you right now, support workers working in one
• 3:59
  to one spaces sometimes can feel that loneliness and that sense
• 4:04
  of wanting to be a part of a team and wanting to belong.
• 4:08
  But when you're 1:00 to 1:00 and you're in one person's house,
• 4:11
  you can't have that team support worker culture.
• 4:14
  It's very limited to between you, whether you're a one to one
• 4:17
  independent or with you as a provider to build some sort of
• 4:20
  team morale or support because it doesn't exist in that space.
• 4:25
  If so, you might be spending say 8 hours at someone's home and
• 4:29
  then you might be spending six hours driving in the car and the
• 4:32
  whole weekend in community service.
• 4:34
  And sometimes there is no team around you, no debrief, no one,
• 4:39
  no answer between support workers, there's nothing.
• 4:41
  And it's just you. And that is so emotionally
• 4:45
  tolling for you. So it's the isolation part is a
• 4:48
  killer. And I've seen that multiple
• 4:50
  times. And you, it's that consistent
• 4:52
  check in that you need. Also, weekend works becomes your
• 4:57
  whole life. So I know a lot of support
• 4:58
  workers love working those weekends or they like doing the
• 5:01
  active nights and the sleepovers.
• 5:03
  Another thing that I've seen is support workers have always the
• 5:07
  reliable ones. They're the ones that say yes to
• 5:08
  the weekends, to the overtime, to extra supports that a person
• 5:12
  might need until they realize they haven't had a proper
• 5:15
  weekend or a time off or they haven't booked their holidays.
• 5:19
  There were so many times in the service that I had to tell
• 5:22
  support workers to please takes some annual leave.
• 5:25
  Take it. You've built up this amount and
• 5:27
  I understand why people might use it annually even different
• 5:29
  ways, but not having a break or a rest, it's unsafe.
• 5:34
  Like it is unsafe. And I get that.
• 5:37
  As support workers, we sometimes do that thing.
• 5:39
  Why don't turn up? I'm this person's one to one.
• 5:42
  They don't have any other support workers or they don't
• 5:44
  have things in place or something that I know that I am
• 5:48
  important to this person and I get that, but nothing like take
• 5:52
  the time off. Please, please put your annual
• 5:54
  leave in, go on a holiday, stay at home, veg out, chill time.
• 5:59
  It's yeah, it's not worth it. Like it's not worth your mental
• 6:03
  health suffering that sense that you haven't had a break and your
• 6:06
  body needs it and your family too.
• 6:09
  So. All right, my next thing,
• 6:11
  apologies on completely. That could be like another
• 6:14
  podcast in itself. So managers who don't know their
• 6:17
  stuff and this one's an icky one for me and this one sticks.
• 6:19
  And the reason why it sticks because it's true, because I've
• 6:22
  seen people ask or, you know, suggest on and and at times
• 6:30
  assertively seeing support workers being rostered to
• 6:36
  support somebody that's like not in their vicinity like 2 hours
• 6:40
  away. And it'd be like a two hours
• 6:42
  away to support somebody. The support workers paying
• 6:46
  petrol back and forth for a 2 hour supports not worth it for
• 6:50
  the support workers at times. It just really isn't.
• 6:52
  There's no yeah like that, that pressuring stuff.
• 6:57
  As support workers, as your manager should know at least
• 7:01
  what suburb this person lives in.
• 7:02
  You don't need to know their full address and crap like that,
• 7:04
  but you do need to know where this person's and what they're
• 7:07
  willing to travel to. But also as a manager, we also
• 7:11
  need to know what is that person's best day of work look
• 7:15
  like and if we can match that or not.
• 7:18
  Sometimes we've got people, sometimes you don't.
• 7:20
  I get that. But as our job and our
• 7:23
  responsibility for the person that we serve, is it the best
• 7:26
  support workers that turn up are the ones that are the happiest.
• 7:28
  They're the ones willing to do more.
• 7:30
  And we all know this, right? But we also, we've got to make
• 7:34
  sure that we know the bare basics of the our support
• 7:36
  workers. Like are they studying?
• 7:38
  Are they saving up for that European trip?
• 7:40
  Are they going away on a holiday?
• 7:42
  What's going on? Like, you know, what's going on
• 7:44
  in that way, I feel like this is our responsibility to know the
• 7:47
  support workers that we are sending in and out of people's
• 7:52
  houses to work independently in isolation.
• 7:56
  It is our duty to know them to make sure that they are
• 8:00
  accountable to the people that we serve and provide good
• 8:04
  quality care as a manager, but also the burnout because we
• 8:08
  don't know them. And we, because I meant
• 8:10
  sometimes you get like you can see the signs of a support
• 8:13
  worker, you know, not feeling great or disgruntled.
• 8:17
  And you know, that's why we've got all these fancy CRMS to pick
• 8:20
  out when somebody has cancelled support or you know, how much
• 8:24
  lead they take. There are signs, there are signs
• 8:27
  and you won't know these signs unless you are the manager
• 8:30
  keeping up with that person and actually communicating
• 8:32
  consistently with them because there's goals that you guys can
• 8:35
  achieve together. Like I find it wild when a
• 8:39
  ambitious support worker wants more or wants the next step and
• 8:44
  wants to build their career. And you as a manager don't know
• 8:48
  that. Like, I think that's something
• 8:50
  these questions you can ask and they're honest people.
• 8:52
  Support workers are some of the honest people that you'll ever
• 8:54
  meet. So you want to know why they
• 8:56
  chose this career first. Some people that come into our
• 8:59
  sector, it's not all about the money.
• 9:01
  There's this deep sense of satisfaction that they get from
• 9:04
  serving somebody. And if you don't know, if you
• 9:07
  don't know your workers, you can't support them.
• 9:10
  All right, So I'm going to like shift gears a little bit and
• 9:12
  we're going to talk about the, the quiet truth.
• 9:15
  Most support workers don't enter this sector, like I said before,
• 9:18
  for money. They come because they want to
• 9:20
  help people and they feel joy and they feel that warm fuzzy
• 9:25
  feelings in their heart. They aren't going to get help
• 9:27
  fuzzy and warm, but they do they they have this sense of purpose
• 9:31
  or people that are in our sector.
• 9:33
  There's a sense of purpose when we support people and but over
• 9:37
  time, it kind of like it shifts and it changes for support
• 9:39
  workers and they start to feel, oh, this is just another day,
• 9:42
  another day on the tools. Another person aligned in my
• 9:45
  roster. The mentality shifts another
• 9:49
  payroll number to them. And that's when the burnout
• 9:52
  really does start because they don't see what they began their
• 9:56
  career of the sense of service and purpose to provide good
• 10:00
  quality care to now where it just feels like another day on
• 10:03
  the tools as our job as managers is to pick that up very quickly.
• 10:09
  And then, you know, like the burnout, it just it's not
• 10:11
  something that happens straight away.
• 10:13
  So it's, it's a slow burn that starts to creep in.
• 10:18
  All right, So you're probably wondering, Sir, I've listened to
• 10:20
  you. So you seem to know what's your
• 10:22
  solution at the end of this? Like, you know, all I've heard
• 10:26
  you so far in this podcast is just complain and rant and give
• 10:29
  me a bit more borings, give me more of a sense.
• 10:32
  I don't want to just complain about this.
• 10:34
  I want to give you my intake of what I've learned for the
• 10:37
  seventeens in the 17 years in the sector, what actually works.
• 10:41
  And here's a few things. And I believe it could make a
• 10:43
  really massive difference, right #1 managers that know their
• 10:48
  people, and this is our support workers and our NDIS petitioners
• 10:52
  or HK participants in that fact that know them inside out, off
• 10:56
  by heart. And if you run a service and you
• 10:59
  manage support workers, you should really know where the
• 11:02
  suburb they live in, the people that they enjoy providing
• 11:05
  service to, what their connections are, what's their
• 11:09
  hobbies, what are their hobbies. Because if you find out what a
• 11:12
  person that we serve is their hobby and the support worker has
• 11:15
  the same hobby and they go do the same hobby together, 2
• 11:17
  thumbs up, two thumbs up. It goes a long way.
• 11:21
  But also like banter because some of the people that we said,
• 11:24
  well, I've got banter. So if you can find somebody that
• 11:26
  is quite weighted and can have that type of banter or enjoy the
• 11:30
  same music, it goes a long way. But also we want to know that
• 11:34
  person's goal because yes, as support workers, there is this
• 11:37
  income that we get from providing care.
• 11:40
  But is there a, a long term goal?
• 11:42
  Because I know that we've had support workers in the past that
• 11:44
  have come in from like uni students to from OTS to speeches
• 11:49
  to teachers. Fantastic.
• 11:50
  Bring them in. You know that the long term goal
• 11:53
  is that they're not going to be with you forever.
• 11:55
  They're a support worker for now, for this period of time.
• 11:57
  It could be two, could be five years.
• 11:59
  So to be able to suit them with like people that we serve that
• 12:03
  are suitable, but also no certain goals because some
• 12:07
  people want to do more and, you know, want to get those hands on
• 12:11
  experiences and they prefer to work in seals, They prefer to
• 12:15
  work in groups. They prefer to work on one to
• 12:17
  one. Find out why.
• 12:19
  What is it that they enjoy about working in a certain part of
• 12:22
  your business, even employment, why they like working there and
• 12:25
  what satisfaction does that give them?
• 12:28
  And in like when we talk about this, you don't have to be like
• 12:31
  like we're not in HR. We are in HR, but we're not in
• 12:33
  HR. I get what you mean.
• 12:34
  Yeah, it is human relations and as as people our job is to see
• 12:39
  where the relationship is and how to move and groove it and
• 12:42
  how to make a bit more from it. And because when workers feel
• 12:46
  gnome, they feel safe. So that means that you know that
• 12:49
  person, you know the insurance and outs, you know that uni
• 12:51
  holidays coming up, you know that Christmas is really
• 12:53
  important as a manager, you know that person.
• 12:56
  So therefore it's makes it easier for a support worker to
• 12:59
  communicate back to you because you want the information back
• 13:02
  from the support worker what is going on in the support workers
• 13:05
  life, but also the person that they, you want to know that
• 13:08
  information because it's our job to manage what we got and
• 13:12
  protect it and look after it. All right, So I'm going to give
• 13:15
  you like solution #2 you need to build our team, especially in a
• 13:18
  1 to 1 space because this is very difficult.
• 13:21
  But you need to find a way to build that team that is all
• 13:24
  relatable. That information can connect and
• 13:27
  move and groove and all in between.
• 13:29
  So they're relying on each other, but they're also working
• 13:32
  in a team. And there's a there is a good
• 13:33
  sense, there is that good warm sense that any person, person
• 13:37
  that's ever worked in a high functioning quality team can
• 13:40
  tell you how it felt. Because when you walk in, you
• 13:44
  feel like you've got this, I've got today I can do today.
• 13:48
  I can support this person in the best way possible.
• 13:51
  So when you build a space with support workers, they can deep
• 13:54
  breathe and talk about what happened today.
• 13:56
  Good, the good, the bad, the ugly in between where they can
• 13:59
  laugh and just go. You know that moment where you
• 14:02
  can, because we got, we support workers, right?
• 14:04
  We got a dry sense of humour. We can talk openly with people
• 14:08
  about having a hard day and it's OK because when we work in the
• 14:12
  disability sector and you look at those burnouts, we're not
• 14:15
  having easy days. This isn't a walk in the park.
• 14:19
  We are working with people that require some really strong
• 14:22
  support from us. And when you build a team, we
• 14:25
  get to learn from each other. Todd gets the benefit of having
• 14:28
  a team that is present for him. So more than one person wins
• 14:32
  here. And we know that isolation is a
• 14:35
  big burnout for our 1:00 to 1. So what are we doing to catch up
• 14:38
  with them? If you're a manager, what are
• 14:40
  you doing to catch up with that individual?
• 14:42
  If you don't have a big team, I get it, but what are you
• 14:44
  actively doing to catch up with that support worker to talk
• 14:47
  about what's going on and if they require more support?
• 14:50
  All right, I'm going to give you solution three.
• 14:51
  Recognize when people go above and beyond means not everyone
• 14:54
  gets like a coffee batch. I get that.
• 14:56
  Like, you know, it's tight out there, but you need to
• 15:00
  acknowledge and you need to say it out loud to that person.
• 15:03
  Thank you for the support that you've given and your service
• 15:06
  for going above and beyond. Because, AZY, whatever in
• 15:09
  between. Yeah.
• 15:10
  Some of the best workers that I haven't ever met are the ones
• 15:14
  quietly doing their jobs every day.
• 15:16
  They stay calm in a crisis. They help the people that we
• 15:19
  serve achieve brilliant goals. They show up consistently and
• 15:22
  yet not one person's says thank you.
• 15:25
  And I can see like the double edged sword of this debate that
• 15:28
  you're thanking somebody to turn up to work.
• 15:31
  But when you see somebody being really consistent, because
• 15:34
  consistency is one of the biggest killers in our sector
• 15:36
  because the turnover rate of support workers, and that means
• 15:40
  all that turnover that we get, the person we serve has this
• 15:43
  really bad taste in their mouth because they feel like they're
• 15:45
  just going to pump through another support worker.
• 15:48
  We don't want that. We want consistent people.
• 15:50
  We want people to stay cool, calm, cool as a cucumber in it
• 15:54
  crisis, but also can help somebody achieve their goals.
• 15:57
  Recognition doesn't have to be fancy because when you are
• 16:00
  checking in on your support workers, it is acknowledging the
• 16:04
  things that done and talk about what's happened and Oh my gosh,
• 16:07
  I can't believe you did that. How did you get to this?
• 16:09
  Be curious what what they're doing and how they did it
• 16:12
  because that is learning from what they're doing that we can
• 16:15
  bring it to the rest of the team and help that person or when the
• 16:18
  support worker needs to take annually.
• 16:20
  We're looking for things and other support workers that have
• 16:23
  got the same skill sets to meet what the person we serve needs.
• 16:26
  This really does not take much. It is a simple lesson, 2 minute
• 16:31
  conversation to see how you're going.
• 16:33
  What's up. I notice how can I help?
• 16:36
  Is it, And you know, like as a manager, how can you help?
• 16:39
  How can I help you to go further?
• 16:41
  What can I do for you? Because if, like I said, happy
• 16:44
  support workers do more and ones that feel safe in you and that's
• 16:49
  solution #4 really does kick off.
• 16:52
  Because I want to talk about protecting support workers
• 16:55
  times. Every shift needs to be covered
• 16:56
  by the same person. So I'm sorry, yeah, I'm went
• 16:59
  blunt and said every shift. But we don't.
• 17:01
  And the reason why is that if we're not introducing new people
• 17:05
  into a mix, it makes it really difficult when we become reliant
• 17:07
  on one support worker to service 1 participant.
• 17:11
  It means when the support worker is sick or when they go on
• 17:13
  annual leave, support workers have guilt there because they
• 17:16
  feel like, oh, there's nobody else to cover me, who's going to
• 17:18
  do it? So our job is to make sure that
• 17:21
  we've got the next in line or working towards that and to
• 17:24
  expand somebody, somebody's opportunity.
• 17:26
  And I get that that support worker is really consistent, but
• 17:29
  that support worker tomorrow can turn around and resign.
• 17:32
  They can. And it means that the person
• 17:34
  that we serve is without any support because there's no
• 17:36
  support worker in place. That's something we don't want,
• 17:39
  but that's something as a manager we need to to build and
• 17:42
  think of opportunities where we can support and not every
• 17:46
  weekend needs to go to the same support worker.
• 17:48
  Yes, I said it. I know there's some people
• 17:51
  really hungry out there that love the weekend stuff, but it
• 17:53
  shouldn't be every weekend. And people that are like hungry
• 17:56
  to want to do every sleepover, every active night, I get it,
• 18:00
  But their burnout and turnover rate is too high.
• 18:02
  We need to put things in place that it's done fairly, but also
• 18:05
  as a manager that is done fairly.
• 18:07
  So everybody gets an opportunity as well to have the same as the
• 18:11
  same opportunities to do sleepovers and weekends.
• 18:14
  You cannot be reliant on the same people.
• 18:16
  And good rostering does protect people because tied support
• 18:20
  workers eventually, you know, they burn out and they leave.
• 18:22
  And that's what we don't want. So making sure that we have
• 18:25
  enough in the bank. And you're probably wondering,
• 18:27
  Sarah, why does this matter to me?
• 18:29
  Well, it matters because the more support workers we churn
• 18:33
  through, it means that the quality of care that the people
• 18:35
  that we serve are the ones that suffer the most because they
• 18:38
  finally got a support worker that they liked.
• 18:41
  Some consistency started happening and then the support
• 18:45
  worker resigns. Will they leave or something
• 18:47
  happens in between and means the person we serve has to start
• 18:50
  over again and that's not what we want.
• 18:52
  We want them to have consistency in their life so they lose the
• 18:56
  most the people that we serve, our NDIS participants, because
• 19:00
  great support work really is a relationship based work.
• 19:05
  And when staff leave consistently, they just lose the
• 19:07
  trust or routine service becomes unstable.
• 19:10
  You don't become a provider of choice as well because they can.
• 19:14
  They don't see you as a provider of choice because you've been
• 19:16
  inconsistent with the support workers that you've been able to
• 19:19
  send to this person. So you're probably wondering now
• 19:21
  guys, what is your final thoughts?
• 19:24
  Sarah? What is it?
• 19:25
  So if you're a support worker listening to this, I just want
• 19:29
  to say something very clear to you.
• 19:31
  You are a professional. Your work matters, the quiet
• 19:35
  moments matter, the the small wins matter and days that can
• 19:40
  feel like you're being unnoticed.
• 19:41
  And some of the most life changing support in this sector
• 19:46
  happens far away from any boardroom or policies that any
• 19:50
  of that crap. It happens in someone's kitchen,
• 19:53
  it might happen in in your car, it might be on community out and
• 19:57
  about in the community. So if nobody says this to you
• 20:00
  recently. I want to say thank you, Thank
• 20:03
  you. I see you.
• 20:04
  You're an absolute professional. And if you're a manager
• 20:07
  listening to this, take this on board.
• 20:09
  And if this episode resonates with you, send it to another
• 20:13
  support worker. Because the truth is this sector
• 20:15
  doesn't run without support workers.
• 20:19
  We are the biggest chunk of this sector and sometimes the most
• 20:23
  unrecognized or the ones that probably need to pick me up the
• 20:28
  most. And it's time to start talking
• 20:32
  honestly and openly about support work and people who
• 20:37
  supports everyone else. Thank you for listening to me
• 20:41
  talk about something that you know has creeped up in my life.
• 20:44
  And I'll be honest and I'm a hand in my heart, I have
• 20:47
  definitely had support worker burnout.
• 20:49
  And I just want to say I see you and I acknowledge everything
• 20:52
  that's going on just to keep up the good work.
• 20:55
  Bye for now guys.