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(07) 3105 7800
Turrbal and Jagera Country
Level 4, 348 Edward Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
This year’s Issue in Focus shines a spotlight on the health and wellbeing of Queensland’s remote and rural health workforce, a topic of growing importance given the pressures faced by practitioners working in these settings.
Practitioners and managers were asked to assess their personal wellbeing across eight dimensions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual/cultural, occupational, financial, and environmental.
Intellectual wellbeing rated highest overall, followed by environmental wellbeing, indicating strong engagement in meaningful work and connection to surroundings.
Financial wellbeing was rated the lowest, closely followed by physical wellbeing, highlighting areas where additional support may be needed.
Respondents also evaluated how well their workplaces support them across these same dimensions. Again, intellectual and occupational wellbeing received the highest workplace support ratings, while spiritual/cultural and physical wellbeing were rated lowest in terms of employer support.
Encouragingly, most practitioners and managers reported an improvement in their overall health and wellbeing compared to two years ago.
When asked about accessing mental health services, the strong preference was for local face-to-face options, followed by metropolitan online services. Least preferred were metropolitan and regional face-to-face services, indicating a desire for trusted, local support that also maintains privacy.
The most commonly reported barriers to accessing mental health care were:
Workforce shortages
Concerns about privacy and confidentiality
Cost
These findings reinforce the need for targeted, locally delivered support services that protect privacy and reduce access barriers—critical to sustaining the health and resilience of the rural health workforce.
Read the full HWNA summary and key findings via the button below.
