What accounts for turnover intention in the Australian public mental health workforce?

High staff turnover is common within the Australian public mental health workforce, contributing to workforce shortages and ultimately impacting the ability to provide stable efficient, effective, and ongoing optimal care to the community. In this study, we aimed to (a) establish the most pertinent factors associated with increased turnover intention in the public mental health workforce in Australia, and (b) establish whether such factors differ between metropolitan and rural services. We used a cross-sectional, correlational design using an online survey method. In total, 235 mental health service staff of various disciplines and levels, from four public hospitals in Victoria, Australia participated in the study. We used three feed-forward multiple regression analyses to assess the study aims. We found that job satisfaction, occupational burnout, and understaffing may be the most pertinent factors to consider regarding turnover intention. Job satisfaction and occupational burnout were factors endorsed across the entire sample, as well as specifically within both the metropolitan and rural services, while understaffing was a pertinent factor regarding turnover intention across the entire sample and for rural services, but not metropolitan services. Our findings regarding the pertinence of job satisfaction, occupational burnout, and understaffing in turnover intention provide key information that may be used to inform interventional targets aimed at reducing attrition from the public mental health workforce in Australia.

Investigating Attraction and Retention of Staff Within Public Mental Health Services in Victoria, Australia: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of Australians are affected by mental illness each year, and treatment gaps are well known. To meet current and future demands and enable access to treatment that is safe, effective, and acceptable, a robust and sustainable mental health workforce is required. Factors reported to attract people to work within the mental health sector include aspiring to help others, having an interest in mental health and human behavior, the desire to make a difference and do something worthwhile, personal lived experience, recognition, and value of discipline-specific roles. However, despite the various reasons people enter the public mental health workforce, recruitment and retention continue to be ongoing challenges. To date, there has been limited investigation into understanding which factors are most relevant to the current Victorian workforce. Furthermore, a comparison to health care workers outside of mental health is also needed to better understand the specific needs of staff within the mental health sector. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore factors related to attraction, recruitment, and retention of the public mental health workforce in Victoria, Australia. METHODS: The study is a multisite, mixed methods cross-sectional study to be conducted at 4 public hospital services within Victoria, Australia: 2 in metropolitan and 2 in regional or rural locations. Current, previous, and nonmental health workers will be asked to complete a 20-25-minute web-based survey, which is developed based on previous research and offered participation in an optional 30-60-minute semistructured interview to examine personal experiences and perceptions. Both aspects of the project will examine factors related to attraction, recruitment, and retention in the public mental health workforce. Differences between groups (ie, current, past, and nonmental health workers), as well as location, discipline, and health setting will be examined. Regression analyses will be performed to determine the factors most strongly associated with retention (ie, job satisfaction) and turnover intention. Qualitative data will be transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed to identify common themes. RESULTS: As of May 2023, we enrolled 539 participants in the web-based survey and 27 participants in the qualitative interview. CONCLUSIONS: This project seeks to build on current knowledge from within Australia and internationally to understand role and service/system-related issues of attraction, recruitment, and retention specifically within Victoria, Australia. Seeking up-to-date information from across the health workforce may provide factors specific to mental health by illuminating any differences between mental health workers and health care workers outside of mental health. Furthermore, exploring motivators across health care disciplines and locations to enter, stay in, or leave a role in public mental health settings will provide valuable information to support how the sector plans and develops strategies that are fit for purpose. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/48855.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to healthcare, physical and mental health among patients with chronic kidney disease in Victoria, Australia.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the difficulties healthcare systems face to care for patients with chronic diseases. In the state of Victoria, Australia, the government implemented a state-wide lockdown and restricted the delivery of healthcare to limit the spread of the virus. This study investigated the impact of the pandemic on healthcare access, mental and physical health for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). METHODS: Patients with stage 4 or 5 CKD were recruited from the nephrology unit of a metropolitan hospital in Victoria. Participants completed a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire that assessed the impact of the pandemic on their access to healthcare and mental and physical health. The quantitative data were analysed by a series of one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVAs) comparing impact between different time periods since the beginning of the pandemic. RESULTS: Participants (n = 75) completed the questionnaire from 30 March 2020 to 29 September 2021. Participants reported significant disruptions to accessing healthcare in the initial 6 months of the pandemic. There were no significant differences in the quantitative assessments of physical and mental health of participants across the 18 months of this study. The participants' qualitative comments about disrupted normal activities, feeling vulnerable to COVID-19, transitioning to telehealth, feeling isolated and vaccination protection provided further insight into the cumulative negative mental health impact of the extended lockdown. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the importance of optimising telehealth to improve communication between CKD patients and their treating teams and continuing to monitor the impacts of pandemic restrictions on patients' mental and physical health.

The impact of COVID-19 on the mental health workforce: A rapid review.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant adaptations to healthcare. Provision of mental healthcare in a changing environment presented healthcare workers with unique challenges and demands, including changes in workload and expectations. To inform current and future healthcare service responses, and adaptations, the current review aimed to collate and examine the impact of the pandemic on mental healthcare workers (MHWs). We conducted a rapid systematic review to examine the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on MHWs. Searches were conducted in Ovid Medline and PsycInfo and restricted to articles published from 2020. Inclusion criteria specified articles written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and that examined any outcome of the impact of COVID-19 on MHWs; 55 articles fulfilled these criteria. Outcomes were categorized into 'work-related outcomes' and 'personal outcomes'. Mental healthcare workers worldwide experienced a range of work-related and personal adversities during the pandemic. Key work-related outcomes included increased workload, changed roles, burnout, decreased job satisfaction, telehealth challenges, difficulties with work-life balance, altered job performance, vicarious trauma and increased workplace violence. Personal outcomes included decreased well-being, increased psychological distress and psychosocial difficulties. These outcomes differed between inpatient, outpatient and remote settings. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered the delivery of mental healthcare and MHWs experienced both work-related and personal adversities during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the continuation of changes introduced to healthcare in the initial stages of the pandemic, it will be important to maintain efforts to monitor negative outcomes and ensure supports for MHWs, going forward.

The contribution of sleep to anorexia nervosa severity.

PURPOSE: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with poor sleep and altered circadian rhythms. Evidence is unclear as to whether these features relate to ongoing psychiatric symptoms of AN, or are merely concomitant with low weight. In this study, we sought to evaluate subjective sleep quality and sleep-wake preferences in a sample of individuals with lifetime AN. Furthermore, we aimed to examine whether sleep quality would significantly predict AN symptom severity, after accounting for demographic features and negative emotions (depression, anxiety and stress). METHODS: Adults with a lifetime diagnosis of AN (n = 96) or no lifetime psychiatric diagnoses (NC; n = 246) completed an online survey assessing demographics, sleep quality, circadian sleep-wake preferences, eating disorder symptoms, and negative emotions. RESULTS: AN participants reported significantly poorer sleep quality overall, including increased sleep disturbances, use of sleep medications, and daytime dysfunction, as compared to NC participants. Groups did not differ significantly in circadian sleep-wake preferences. Regression analysis showed that among AN participants, sleep quality and negative emotions significantly predicted AN symptom severity, while sex and body mass index (BMI) did not. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that poor sleep quality was associated with more severe symptoms of AN, even when accounting for negative emotions and BMI. Future research should investigate causal interactions between sleep quality and AN symptom severity longitudinally and across different recovery stages. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III-Cohort and case-control analytic studies.