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But for now, on with the episode.
Hello, meme. Hi, Liz. How are you?
I'm excited that we get to do another podcast episode.
I know. This is episode two of the seed project, which is part of the Social Work Stories podcast.
That's right. This is our part two of our three part episode arc where we're getting to showcase this incredible program called seed that we were able to partner with the University of Wollongong and Illa Warrishall, Haven Local Health District to do these episodes, Liz.
And memory about episode one.
Yes. So we painted the picture of seed with all these wonderful characters.
That's right. Do you remember who we met in episode one?
There was Michelle. Michelle, who was a pharmacist, whose home burnt down.
We started with her story.
That's right. We heard from Gail about how horrendous it was down there at the time of the fires, right?
Like actually that build up on the highway.
Absolutely awful. And then we meet the unlikely duo of Stuart, head of operations at Milton Hospital, critical care nursing background meets social worker, Padmeany.
That's right. That's the one that you and I wanted to be the fly in the wall.
Yeah. We wanted to see exactly how the sparks flew in that moment.
And look, listen, as if you haven't heard episode one yet, you got to start there.
You've got to, and you've got to be able to build up.
Yeah, you have to. You absolutely have to because what we're talking about today is actually what were the activities that seed used in Milton, Ulladala Hospital to actually work with staff around their wellbeing and their wellness.
So we're going to hear from Stuart.
We're going to hear from Padmeany.
We're going to hear from everyone.
We're going to hear from Ruth, who told us that her story last time about her burnout and sort of set the scene because, you know, Liz, this is the whole theme of these episodes is what we're talking about on this podcast all the time, which is about staff wellbeing.
And it's about being able to continue the really, really hard every day work that is healthcare provision.
Yeah. So this episode, we're going to kick off by just hearing from Stuart about what was happening amongst the staff at the time of these bushfires.
Yeah, these are the bushfires of 2019, 2020, was the summer, was a really difficult time for everyone.
What was going on with the staff?
Let's hear from Stuart.
They had done the most amazing job in the time that I had been away.
They were under a stated Uress from the 31st.
Not only did the fire hit Lake Injola, but that influenced the entire region.
And for a very small 25 bed ward hospital, we were in a state of a state of disaster response for five days.
And we, so we had no power at the hospital.
There was disruption to water supply.
There was clearly an abundance of people that exceeded the capacity of the facility.
And outside of that, the public care for our community, a staff from the community.
And what that actually means is that they're in the home, caring for their family, caring for themselves, going through an experience that is extreme in nature.
And then we asked them to come to work.
And for eight or ten hours, park all of that to the side and provide exceptional care, both physical and psychological care to our patients.
To do that is extraordinary.
And they did it very well.
They've been well regarded by the community prior to this.
And this sort of, this act of selflessness and being able to provide a service demonstrates to me the high level of skill, high level of competence and professionalism that these staff have.
Isn't it incredible is that while all that's going on, the staff can actually still get on and do their jobs?
Like I find that amazing.
In fact, it probably was one of those things that was a protective factor for them.
Yeah. You know, my life's falling apart.
I've lost my house, you know, my animals have been killed in the fire.
In the chaos, the one thing that I know how to do is to provide health care.
So in some of that would have been the only thing that brought them some sense of control over.
That's right. And actually the hospital becomes a place of potential comfort.
And you know, within that framework, I guess, within that context, the senior executive of the local health district, sent in Padmeany.
And can I just say, what, she probably, she knows this person and she knows that, you know, she's done good work in the past.
But essentially it was, it was a risky manoeuvre.
You're sending in an outsider to actually work with a group of people from a local town, right?
Yeah, that's right. But one of the things that really impressed me with a number of the leadership approaches to this disaster was this vulnerability that they just don't.
Yeah. The ability to say, I don't know what we're going to do, but let's just not know together.
And it's pretty rare, certainly in health world, that you hear that style of leadership.
And I feel another seed metaphor coming on.
Bring it on Liz. What is it?
Stuart. Stuart and his leadership as being a seed.
I'm just planting that.
I'm not planting. I'm not planting.
I plant the seed in the listener's minds because we're going to come back to that.
Yes. I think you're right.
There's many ways we can look at the seed metaphor.
And one of the beautiful things that Padmeany described for us in part one of these episodes was how she consulted with the staff.
She ran focus groups. Did that participatory action research model where she really sat and talked with people about what they're experiencing and what they're there for needed?
And out of that came a number of components of the seed program, activities that happened that really brought about the values of seed, right?
So we're going to now listen to people within the hospital talking about the different components.
And firstly, we're going to talk about what the staff call the quiet room.
Liz. So I'm going to let them describe what the quiet room is.
We're going to hear from Bronwyn and Michael and Stuart about that.
But I guess I want to put it out there to our listeners.
How easy do you think it would be to find a quiet room in a busy hospital?
One of the nice things that's come out of the program is we have a quiet room.
So the quiet room is a really lovely space.
And very few hospitals, I imagine very few workplaces have a space that's dedicated to restoration or a bit of nurturing.
And it's a real privilege to work in an organisation that provides us with that space.
All of a state in hospitals is quite limited, meeting rooms.
So I'm just really hoping that for as long as possible, we can keep that.
And so far so good, it has a lot of support.
What the quiet room is used for is very diverse.
So last evening, a staff member who couldn't drive home in really bad weather, the in charge of hospital said, look, perhaps you stay overnight in the quiet room.
That's unusual, but it's a nurturing thing to do for a staff member.
We use it, the clinic on the two clinic on our seducators.
We use it to do a lot of our incident reviews.
We'll sort of sit down with the staff member.
We do our clinical supervision in there.
We take staff in there if we need to talk about an episode of care.
Just get better understanding.
And it's a very relaxed space.
Quite often when I take nursing students in there, we'd always take the nursing students there on a weekly basis.
And they like to sit on the cushions on the ground.
You know, it's actually if you came in, you'd see like five people sprawled around the ground.
And it's very informal.
And in that relaxed sitting, there's no one behind a desk.
And it's just really nice.
So that's from a practical perspective how it's used for us as educators.
But for the staff in general, you know, they can go down and just have a rest and have a sit down if they need to extricate themselves after something stressful occurs.
Yeah, there's sort of regular people who use it all the time.
It's very accessible from the ward area.
I think emergency staff could probably benefit by using it a lot more.
And culturally they find it's not situated in the emergency department.
Ideally, if every department could have their own space for people to go would be ideal.
And we're a small enough hospital that, you know, having it in the general ward still OK.
And we can encourage use of that room by doing more things in that room and bringing more staff into that room.
And that could be, for example, with the emergency staff, if I say I'm just going to run just a little chat about something and take them down there.
And I think over time it just becomes embedded in our culture to have a space that we can use.
I must say it is predominantly nursing focused.
It would be really nice to see sometimes that the doctors might choose to use a space like that.
Because, you know, particularly after all sorts of events they probably would like us to have five minutes just to regover their thoughts again.
We've left a lot of the things on the walls and over time it hasn't changed a great deal.
So a lot of the messages that people wrote down after their courses, the artwork that people did, the colouring in.
It's kind of growing and more thing that space, but it still kind of contains history now where you've sort of got evidence of like the growth of seed.
You can actually see that.
And every now and then, you know, even today, you know, I go into that space and I just kind of flick you, you can't help but read some of the messages that are around the place.
And it can be quite uplifting and it's really nice to just reflect back on some of those ways in which people felt nurtured or positive.
And one of the ones that I always notice is about things that other managers through executive, through the area, wrote to our director of nursing, you know, when he described the program.
And they were just true words of encouragement.
And so, you know, within a health culture that's really nice to see.
It's good for us all. So we had a quiet room that was developed for the staff to be able to go and relax or to take their mind off things when they needed to or have a break.
So I was able to make a tree that went on to the wall out of an old door that I had at home.
I like to muck around in my shed.
And she also had a smaller one that she wanted to be a mobile thing to take around and be able to tell everyone about the program.
And it was, I made a sort of smaller version of that, which was just nice.
Again, just nice practical things.
I made a little table for in the room as well.
And it sort of fed into the things that I love to muck around doing in my shed.
So it was a good excuse to get into my man shed.
No problems there at all.
I remember when Padmini said to me, I want to put in a quiet room.
And I knew that I would be the lead weight around the idea.
I knew that if it was up to me, we would not be putting in a quiet room.
And I would see no benefit in it.
But I actually started to see the changes of leadership in me because I realised that I wasn't in a position to have all the answers.
And I needed to believe in someone, believe in something different.
Trust Padmini, but also trust the staff.
And be courageous, be prepared to try something new, do something different.
And whilst it wasn't something that I had ever seen in health or in my experience, I'd participate in.
I knew that it was worth a go.
So I actually said to Padmini, look, just make it happen.
But best that you just tell me it's done because if I get myself involved, I think I'll actually dampen it or change it or it won't happen.
And that was a really tough moment for me because I'm used to it.
I'm used to having the answers.
I'm used to knowing the direction that I need to go in.
And I'm not used to, well, I wasn't used to, being as trusting and as courageous as I needed to be in that space.
So very much a pivotal turning point for me.
And we popped a quiet room in and it came with great success.
I remember thinking to myself without someone that was as forward thinking as Padmini, we would never have done that.
I want a quiet room. I want one.
It is so rare. What they describe is, like, it sounds really simple.
But if you work in a hospital, you know that real estate, space is so, it's so competitive.
Yeah. But we also know that the, the sensory overload that you have is a result of working in a hospital and the type of work that you do.
To have an escape room where you could just sit quietly and I've been in this quiet room at Nilshna La Della.
There is a vibe there that as soon as you walk in, you can feel a, like, tension being released.
It's a really homie space.
And you could feel like people, lots of people like Michael have contributed to this space.
So it really feels like a staff own it and it feels as comfortable as, actually as a shared university house lounge room it reminded me of.
I love it. It took you back to those days.
There was a couple of bean bags in there.
Yeah, that's right. It certainly did.
There was just no milk crates but there was definitely the bean bags and I just felt comfortable and it was so, like, the opposite of the room right beside it where everything is sterile and clinical.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's instantly just homely.
Yeah, and it's also at the end of a corridor.
So actually you almost leave behind the sterility of the hospital to come to this different space.
And there's no place, I think, about my workplace.
If I wanted to just have some downtime, maybe I wanted to have a bit of a cry.
Yeah. Got to go in the toilet for that.
Yeah. There's nowhere else in a hospital that you can actually just have a private moment.
But Milton does now. Yeah, I know.
I love that. Absolutely love that.
They also introduced these interesting other things.
So they had these really structured wellness Wednesdays.
And where wellness activities would occur.
And then they also had this idea of coffee buddies where they'd match people for coffees.
Within work time, we're going to let Stuart, Michael and Michelle talk to us about the coffee buddies and the wellness Wednesdays.
But some really interesting activities leads bringing people together in different ways.
We also put in place a relationship opportunity with our staff.
So we created the coffee buddy system, which was about connecting the staff to each other.
We know there's pockets of staff that connect well.
We also know that you can walk past the staff member in a facility and not really know their name, who they are, how they fit into the world.
And that creates a distancing.
So we set up the coffee buddy system and we facilitated that with local coffee shops.
So people were buddy together that wouldn't normally have a relationship.
And they were going up the street having a coffee in work time on us with the purpose of not talking about work, but talking about each other and understanding each other as people.
And that meant that the next time you passed the lady that delivered the meals, you would know her name was Jenny and you would know that she has a husband and three kids and you would know that her favourite dog is John.
You know, like those are the things that started to matter.
Yeah, it was a funny, the coffee buddies was an interesting sort of project.
I think when people first were told that they could go off the ward and go up the street and have a coffee together, it was a bit of a, I don't believe you sort of thing.
I think in a hospital there's a real pace to a hospital and sometimes people didn't believe it.
But I think once it really caught on, people went off and I know from a personal aspect, I certainly went off and had coffees with people that I really didn't know at all.
And I sort of took the opportunity to sort of people that are outliers of our organisation.
And it was great. Let's get to know someone on a different level and just, yeah, just to, I think, been able to have a chat with someone and just to get to know them.
One of the sessions that developed out of that was a session that we started off having on a Wednesday and it was a wellness session or a wellbeing session.
And it was really in response to the staff wanting to gather together and maybe listen to each other's stories, console each other, be there for each other.
That was an opportunity outside of the work environment where they could actually be kind to one another.
And I had previously facilitated an imagined program here at the hospital which went for six weeks.
And so with really no guidelines in this place, I thought, well, we could use the concepts that were within this imagined program and maybe start with that and just sort of use that as a bit of a guideline which is sort of where I started.
I also, I think there was a bit of hesitation about me being the person that would facilitate the wellness Wednesday.
And I understand that. But I felt that for me and particularly the way that I connected with other people in this in with love and gratitude, I felt that that would actually be a really healing space for me as much as for anyone else.
And that's turned out to be that way.
And so our wellness Wednesday was sort of structured with a few key components that really helped to create a structure around what we were doing.
But at the same time, not be so structured that there wasn't the flexibility to be vulnerable.
And we were really looking for vulnerability in that hour, that once a week.
And so I always began with a meditation practice.
It only went for a few minutes and so many that was quite foreign.
And that was just breathing or just becoming aware of where they were.
And just letting them come away from their workspace into that really mindful place.
And for many who had never even done that previously, that was a real favourite.
That became really favourite, really popular.
So that we all started with that.
And then we would move into a virtue pick.
And I learnt this from Pat Meni.
And they are a group of cards which list strengths and characteristics at each person carries.
And I used it as an opportunity for people to randomly pick a card and then apply those strengths or those virtues to their immediate situation.
It might have been their day at work.
It might have been how they left the home with their relationship.
It might have just been the way they were feeling in general.
And it created opportunity for connection.
Each person spoke sometimes only a little bit, sometimes a lot.
And the one thing that was built over that time was relationship.
I felt that our relationships were enriched even though we had worked together many of us for many years.
We really didn't know a lot about each other.
And it was on that platform of relationship that things started to shift even within our hospital.
We started to see the individual change and then we started to see the culture change.
And I did so many little exercises around just connecting and loving each other.
And that heart of love really opened a lot of people.
There were so many great stories that were shared in that place.
And I think then I would sort of finish with a little bit of content.
We might touch on gratitude or we might touch on at the time some self-care or we might have just had a discussion about how you were doing.
What's happening? And it depended but there was always a little content.
And then my most favourite part was we finished with a cup of tea.
And the cup of tea just, we started with a cup of tea and we finished with a cup of tea.
And I think it just sealed, it closed the circle for those people that came.
And it went from a Wednesday and a Friday was added in.
The numbers were so great.
And it continued for many, many months that twice a week, including when COVID came.
And we already had inbuilt into us the skills.
And it continues to this day.
And it's pulled back now to just one day a week but it is still a very much loved hour.
Hey, Mim. The coffee buddies.
Yeah. And out of all of the different activities that the staff suggested, this is the one that caught my eye.
Because, you know, like, I'm a social worker, I like coffee.
Yeah. So can I tell you something?
When we've had this last surge of COVID, we in the department that I work in, we decided to borrow from the seed idea.
Okay. So, we got coffee, little coffee groups.
And so a few social workers put a lot, quite a bit of money at various cafes so that social workers in our department could go grab a free coffee.
Wow. And then contact their coffee group.
And so it was done virtually, right?
So I'd be at home working from home and my coffee group, three other social workers, and we call and we, for an hour, we have our coffee and we talk about anything other than work.
So similar to what the, the same.
Yeah, I love this. And I heard a social worker say to me the other day, it's her oasis in the week.
Yeah. And I get that now because I'm getting to know my colleagues in such a different way.
We don't, because we've just all agreed, we're not going to talk about work, I know about their pets, I know about their kids, I know about their Christmas shopping.
And so it's enriched the relationships as well.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, when we were doing the interviews at Milton, I'll a dollar hospital with people when they were talking about the coffee buddies.
They were talking about how they were sitting having conversations with people that they really didn't know at all that they'd maybe seen in the corridors or, you know, and some people really didn't like each other terribly much, but now they were matched together as coffee buddies and how that totally changed the nature of their relationship.
I think these links, these invisible threads between people in a workplace are so incredibly important, right?
I think it's amazing. And the other thing I was thinking about with regards to the Wellness Wednesdays is here are, let's just call them healers, right?
Yeah. This attention is often on patients and their families.
They've now shifted the lens to sharing this with each other.
And that's incredibly powerful.
Oh, absolutely. Isn't it?
That they're actually receiving from each other gifts that they've developed in the course of their working as nurses, social workers, doctors, whatever, but they're shifting the focus to each other.
Yeah, I think it's beautiful.
I think it's amazing. One of the other aspects that came into the seed program was about the community outside of the hospital, right?
So not just what was happening inside the hospital.
Like we said, in part one of these episodes, Milton Aladala Hospital is this small, you know, country rural hospital.
And so there's a community within the hospital which sits in a small community outside, right?
And the quiet room was one of the examples of how the community came in and donated things for the quiet room, but there's also this other activity they did called friendly Fridays.
And that was a really key way where community came into this whole program.
So let's hear from Padmeanie a little bit about what was happening in friendly Fridays.
As the seed program was progressing in Milton, we also noticed that the community came forward to give their support.
It was so beautiful when people came and offered their skills.
I still remember there was a yoga teacher who said, can I come and do something for the staff?
There was a nutritionist who was very well-renowned in the local community.
There was another member who said she wanted to come and do some artwork and coloring.
And we thought, you know what?
It's time for us to be open for the healing.
And it was so nice when the community supported us.
And that's why we wanted to distinguish it from the wellness Wednesdays and called it as friendly Fridays.
So friendly Fridays was optional.
Wellness Wednesdays was more what Michelle Devlin did.
And friendly Fridays was when the community came in.
There were a few members who ever wanted to come.
There was a choice. There was a lot of free, flowing discussions that happened.
Only healing because it was a bit of storytelling and doing what we were doing as well.
So there was a bit of a head and heart happening at the same time.
And I think the community felt very, very validated because it was in giving that we received.
Just briefly. Yeah. I really liked that idea of the community giving back to again to the healers.
And I can't help but imagine how powerful that was to be on the receiving of a community just like that.
And I would imagine it was quite uncomfortable because I kind of think about, oh gosh, could you imagine the community coming in and offering, well, won't you, a massage?
Like, that's my dream come true.
Like, I'm waiting for the day where a massage therapist says, and now I want to come in and massage you.
Massage you. I'm here. Yeah.
And, you know, like just putting it out there, me, like if there is anyone out there that ever wants to do that, I'm that person.
But I think it also highlights the importance of a community being able to be in that position to say thank you to these frontline workers.
That's very powerful. And I think it also highlights how a hospital can often be at the heart of small communities like this.
I couldn't agree more with all of that, Liz.
I think it's so, so pertinent.
But also, I think it feeds into how do these sorts of activities continue into the future, right?
Like, you need more than just the moment.
And I, there was one aspect of the seed program that they put in place called wellness warriors.
And that to me really embodies how do we go forward in the future?
If it's all reliant on someone external like Padmini, then the second that she leaves, this is all going to fall apart, right?
But this is highlights the sophisticated approach that she took.
Yeah. Because always I would imagine from the outset she's thinking, I am going to be walking away from this.
You have to build sustainability into, well, that's good community development, right?
Right. Always knowing that it's important to be able to build capacity within that community.
And I think the wellness warriors was a great example of building capacity.
I think so too. Look, let's hear from Michelle and Padmini about what was happening in that wellness warriors space.
And for all you social work listeners out there, just listen for some really familiar terminology you might hear now from both Michelle and Padmini.
We found a sense of purpose sharing stories with each other.
There were people that experienced a great loss.
So homes, properties, animals, and there were people who didn't experience that tangible loss, but that sheltered other people from evacuation centres in their homes.
When out onto the highway where cars were jammed packed and couldn't leave and gave them meals and offered beds and rooms to them.
And there were some really beautiful things that came out of the community as a whole.
But as far as the staff at Milton Hospital came, we formed a better connection through our relationships and the similarities that we found that we had with each other.
We did this by holding wellness sessions where we shared our concerns.
We shared problem solving tips or how we dealt with stress.
Because as human beings we get in a habit of doing the same thing.
We do what works for us and we need to open our minds sometimes to other possibilities.
So when you hear that other people have a unique way of dealing with a problem, you're a little bit more likely to go, oh, I never considered that before.
That's interesting. I'll give it a go.
So in holding space for each other, we connected and shared vulnerable feelings which allowed us to give a voice to the anxiety and the stress that we had.
And it lightened the load a little bit of these heavy emotions we were carrying.
The wellness warriors I think is by far our flagship seed initiative.
This is when 18 staff put their hands up to take care of themselves as well as take care of each other.
And very quickly what we did was we designed a two day workshop.
The Virtues project has been very, very close to my heart and I'm a master facilitator of the Virtues project as well.
And one very, very quick strategy in the Virtues project is the art of companioning.
The art of companioning teaches us how to use compassion and detachment at one and the same time.
So for us to learn the art of listening to understand, not listening to fix was a major leap in the way we worked with each other.
So the wellness warriors was the core and now we've got wellness warriors across the district and also a lot of interest statewide to see how the wellness warriors can now be used in the pandemic space.
Isn't it nice Liz to hear people from all different sorts of backgrounds using phrases like professional backgrounds using phrases like holding space?
I love it. I love it because in social work these are phrases that we use all the time but actually having it made real for all of the staff at this hospital regardless of disciplines.
I think that was a really genius stroke by Padmeany and the training that was done.
Absolutely. And I would imagine when you reach a point where you're actually hearing statements like that or using phrases like that that again you're getting a sense of the capacity building has is taking place.
Yeah. You know there's a hashtag that the Ministry of Health created during this whole time.
It's hashtag kindness works here and I really love that and wellness warriors to me actually embodies that phrase kindness works here because once you are teaching people how to be kind to each other on mass then it doesn't matter what happens outside of that couple of hours you spend in that training they're doing that throughout every single shift moving forward.
It's magic right? Like it's magic.
Can I tell you I went down to visit Milton Hospital maybe two or three months after all of this had taken place and I walked in there and I've never been greeted by people.
So like everyone you passed greeted you with a smile said hello.
I looked a little bit lost.
If I was okay did I need any help?
Yeah. And it felt different.
It felt like it was a kind place.
It's a culture shift right?
I love it. I love it. You know there's this thing that they did about New Year's Eve and I really want to bring us to that now because it embodies that as well.
I think that essence of what was so individual or unique about this experience the trauma that these people at this hospital went through with the bushfires and for everybody else you might go well, is New Year's Eve really that important?
Like come on it's just one night in the year but when you've got an entire staff of a hospital who spent New Year's Eve fighting the bushfires defending their homes, taking care of trauma victims in the hospital right?
Like they didn't bring in the New Year did they?
Like 2020 didn't really come in for them.
So I actually think that one of these, there's an amazing activity that the hospital initiated as part of the seed program where they held New Year's Eve a little bit later than the 31st of December is.
They held it in February and for me it's one of my most favourite activities that actually seed was able to do it this time because I think it embodies exactly what we were just talking about just that implicit kindness and taking care of each other.
I want us to hear from Michael now because Michael hosted the New Year's Eve party at his property and it's really I think a very special thing.
I'd previously done a Christmas party at my house where we had to starve around and when it was thrown up that we could do a New Year's Eve party and where we could do it I was more than happy to have it at my house.
I think I'm very blessed to have a house that is quite big and sort of big yard and stuff and I was I saw the benefit of the Christmas party and I was more than happy to sort of push into the New Year's Eve party and I think there was a really good attendance of everyone.
I think it was a real which is probably very similar to the environment where now where a lot of people have been restricted of being able to do the things that they enjoy and a lot of people hold out for Christmas in New Year's and all these things and our holidays and if you can't have them then they really do affect us.
So yeah the party was great I think it was a good bonding time it was pretty easy going which is to barbecue in the backyard but it was a lot of people chatting and everyone from you know and we're lucky that our CEO and stuff was there of the area health as well as our managers but again you know people that knew on the floor and the houses in the hospital and so every person really from all walks of life were there or within the hospital so that was really nice I think it was a it was a good bonding time good bonding time for everybody.
I agree with you I loved the New Year's Eve party in February.
But the like so the yes it was a coming together we've been through a lot we've supported each other we've grown through this I also thought this is a ritual right and we know that rituals can be really important for many people when they've experienced a loss.
Yeah that's right and you know how to do it New Year's Eve party but you also know that it's about celebrating New Year New Life.
Yeah regeneration it's actually that seed metaphor again isn't it Liz?
It is so on that level I think it was also a really beautiful gesture.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah. You know if you're going to keep this sort of these sort of activities and practices and approach happening into the future you got to give it validity of some sort right like an organisation has to invest and we know that we know that anecdotally we know that on the ground but does it happen Liz?
No that's the thing. This is one of my milk crate moments.
How often in health do we have a new program and it becomes a shiny bobble on the Christmas tree for a few months and then it kind of dies out and then it's replaced with something else.
This is different. It is different and what made it different I think is the organisational support and structure around it.
And one of the things that Illa Orochalhaven, logo health district did that I think was really important was creating Ruth's position as the project officer right.
Like and that position has continued on since Ruth but you know Ruth was there in that fundamental phase where it was all being embedded and I think if you don't have someone in that role then actually saying this is a formalised structure people it's really easy to forget about it it's really easy to sort of go around it and become a token gesture.
Completely. So again the approach you know community development versus that one off response to a disaster you bring in the psychological team you do a debrief it's usually strangers but here Ruth is a member of this community.
She's a member of the hospital community member of the Alladala Milton community.
She's got history with these people she's done all of the training the well-nosporia training and she embodies what seed is that's it that she's been transformed by it and there's always lovely to be around someone who feels incredibly passionate and joyous about something and she like she was like the fridge sticker for the seed program I reckon.
Yeah that's right. So let's hear from her now and then we'll come back and talk about that.
Yeah. She actually did that amazing project off of Saurol.
So in my project off of Saurol I got to do lots of things kind of involved in facilitation of wellness activities and planning and I was able to work one on one with different teams within the hospital as well so if they identified that there was something that they wanted to change or initiate then I could come in and kind of talk to them about how that might work and I was able to advocate for staff with their team leaders on making changes within the workplace for them.
So all sorts of opportunities I guess and then the other component of my time as a project officer which really meant a lot to me personally was the ability to just have one on one interactions with staff.
So throughout that time everyone in the hospital was pretty much aware that if they were having a bad day then they could always come to my office so I was fortunate that I have an office on my own so it was a pretty quiet space.
We could close the door.
It was in a quiet area of the hospital so you wouldn't necessarily, other stuff wouldn't necessarily know somebody was coming down to see me so it was pretty private in that way.
So staff could just come down, knock on my door and say hey not doing so well today can we just have a chat.
So I had some pretty incredible connections during that time as well and my role was to not provide advice or try and fix their problem or anything like that it was there just to be sitting with them with an open heart and open ears and just let them talk and let them feel as though somebody within their workplace really wanted to hear them.
And there's so much healing comes with being able to tell your story and also knowing that the person listening to your story is truly listening to your story.
So that was pretty amazing.
And then also as part of my role staff and team leaders and Stuart would also know that if he could recognise that somebody wasn't so great that they would just kind of give me the heads up and I could then just very quietly just go in and check on people as well.
The fact that we had somebody who was dedicated to just checking in on the one-on-one well-being of staff there is pretty revolutionary I think you know.
I don't remember having experienced that in my career and I haven't seen it and don't know of it in other healthcare settings either.
So you know I worked for two days a week so two full days a week for a lot of those 12 months was dedicated to trying to enhance the well-being of our staff at the hospital and to kind of just spread kindness and improve culture and look at any way that might help the well-being of others in the workplace.
So pin up girl Ruth. I just wanted to, as I was listening to her I was thinking I would go into her office and I would definitely engage in a conversation with her in relation to how I was feeling so having a rough day because I trust this person.
She's been with us from the outset, she's been a wellness warrior and she's probably got her own story.
I mean we know that it's like a transformation story herself but this is the I call up a complete stranger and download I'm having a rotten day because the insurance company haven't paid up and I'm still living in a caravan in the back of my mum's place.
Yeah. No this is someone that you could actually have a conversation with that you know you've had previous conversations with.
This is far more authentic in my mind than some of the other responses that I've heard about in relation to disaster.
Oh I would agree with you completely one of the most empty resources that gets given to staff in a disaster is a phone number of a hotline or of someone who they've never met before ever.
Right. So actually to know that there's someone there on the ground who is working in the same environment as you who's gone through similar experiences as you and their door is open and not just their door is open is what I love.
Because Ruth is involved in the environment so she's able to go up to people and say it looks like you're having a hard day are you okay right.
And like how many people do that in a busy hospital environment stop everything to say to someone you don't look okay come and sit with me.
Like I think it's actually amazing to have the organisation support the structure of that.
Yeah I do too. We've heard about all these activities that seed did right like and they're all incredible.
But let's come back to why they're important right.
Like let's come back to the fact that this group of staff went through a trauma and that seed actually came at a point in time where they really needed to move to the next point.
It was a here part of their healing journey right.
And that's going to have an impact isn't it.
It's going to have an impact on you professionally but it's going to have an impact on you personally.
You remember Michelle the pharmacist from part one she's lost her house in the bushfire.
Let's hear about the impact that seed had on her as a person.
I learned a lot along the way and I think the most for me that I got out of it was that my circumstances actually don't define that who I am.
And that internal landscape that we carry can either be full of grief or fear or loss and sadness.
All of those things go through you but you need to start replacing them.
And I found that I was I started to replace them little by little they were able to be replaced.
And I wasn't sort of any longer that person that was defined by the trauma that I had been through.
At first I was defining myself by the trauma.
You know it was the conversations were like oh you've lost your house or I would be like I lost my house at the beginning of conversations.
You know and I thought you know what I'm starting to define myself by that event.
And so I no longer had to change my language.
I had to change that part of me that I was no longer defined by that traumatic event.
And I can see how you could get really easily stuck there in that place.
Because it actually took quite a lot of work.
I had to rewrite even some of my own beliefs.
You know I'd never I had never been challenged to this extent with healing and processing something so large.
You don't realize that so much of your identities is tied up with your things and the things that you have at home.
And waking up each morning and having your cup of tea out of that special little teacup that you've had forever or coming home from work and seeing the familiarity of your home and your furniture and your animals and just everything that is familiar to you makes you feel safe and makes you feel grounded.
And I learnt that being grounded isn't so much about the things that we have around us anymore.
It's actually from within and it's challenging to redefine the beliefs that you have but it's not impossible.
And to change was a great privilege actually.
I feel like I've I mean people come out of these traumatic situations and they say like I feel blessed and I do I feel blessed.
I feel like I'm a better person.
I'm a better listener. I am way more compassionate to other people's circumstances.
I didn't want my future to be through this lens anymore.
I wanted it to be amazing and positive and it in fact opened the doors for kindness from people and it opened the doors to a whole new chapter of my life where I was able to come back to work and have a different even relationship with those that I worked with.
When we went into our Wednesday sessions I was able to facilitate from truth like I knew this.
This was true to me now. And there was understanding and I could really lean into people's stories and want to know more and learn to listen.
Really learn to listen to what people had and to offer.
You know it's beautiful to be offered financial support and it's beautiful to be offered pieces of furniture and clothing and all of those things happen at the beginning.
But what is the most beautiful is when humanity give of themselves and that happened to me within my community.
My hospital community were so giving and so caring.
I met people that I didn't even know anything about through this whole journey.
And so I guess that's me.
The wellness sessions, the wellness warriors that have been created through the seed program in Milton Hospital has completely changed the hospital.
There is no way it is the same place that it was at the beginning.
And I know that I have just as much changed.
I have been privileged to walk alongside the change and be part of that change.
And I think that for me I healed.
I healed through that whole support system.
You underestimate how just sitting in a room with people who are compassionate and understanding will support you.
It's literally like there were layers of grief and the grief layers come off a little bit at a time, not all the way.
And it was the most unexpected moments that my grief layer would come off.
Something that was said, a bit of kindness, a little story that somebody else shared and that triggered me to share that little bit more grief.
I don't think you can do that on your own.
I think you need community and I needed my hospital community.
I have only lived down here for a number of years.
I lived on my own. So my family weren't down here.
My community were the hospital.
What a beautiful story to end episode two with me because we've come full circle with Michelle in some regards.
And I love the fact that she's re-authored her story.
Yeah, do too. And it reminded me of how evolving the trauma story can be and how important it is for the person who owns that story to be able to tell it and retell it along their recovery process.
And Michelle really highlighted the importance of being able to redefine yourself in the way that you need to as a result of a disaster and taking ownership of it.
You know, I don't think it's just Michelle.
Liz, I think that that is actually a large part of the story of seed.
It's about, you know, taking some sort of control back as well, right?
Everyone, this is, that's the end of part two of this three-part episode series.
And in our next episode, we're going to really focus on what the impact of seed was on the leaders in the organisation because, you know, you don't think always that it's going to be the leaders that actually have a huge change happen within them.
So we're going to get to focus on that and what does it mean to actually work in a health care system when you've gone through a programme like seed?
How does that change you and the way you might work every day?
And we're going to talk a bit about how do we keep this going into the future so that we can other organisations can start to pick up the threads of this.
Like you said, Liz, you know, you've taken the coffee buddies and you've run with it in your context.
Well, we want to see more organisations doing that, right?
So that's going to be a great final episode for this series.
But I think we can end it there, yeah?
Let's end it. Yeah. Thanks so much, everyone.
And we'll see you next time in another week.
This one will be, the next one will be released and we'll finish up our seed series.
Thanks, Liz. Thanks, me and bye.
Thanks in the production of this episode goes to the Ilawara, Shulhaven, local health district and the staff at Milton, Ula Dala Hospital and to the University of Wollongong.
This episode of Social Work Stories has been funded by the University of Wollongong Community Engagement Grant and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
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