A glimpse into the world of angels...

Carers Queensland are trusted with responding to the unique and changing needs of the 533,200 carers across the state and those they care for. Their purpose driven team have the extraordinary responsibility of ensuring carers, people with
disability, and their families are enabled social and economic participation in society.

One way they're achieving this is via their 'Carer Program'. This Program, facilitated by a highly specialised team, provides support and assistance through activities and events that focus on carer health and wellbeing, while connecting carers to each other and their local community. To deliver life changing outcomes the dedicated Carer Program team must individually and collectively function at their best.

We asked Sarah Bone, Manager of the 'Carer Program', to share her perspective of the acute challenges her team face, and how they've collectively gone about overcoming these challenges, in achieving their aim of reducing isolation and improving confidence and connection for carers.

"Like all organisations, we're always going through periods of unavoidable but necessary change."

Considering the Carer Program team is spread out geographically, and we have to hybrid-function as a team, effective collaboration is an ongoing challenge for us. To meet this challenge, employee retention and appropriate upskilling is always crucial. Creating a feeling of connection and trust amongst my individual team members was critical for creating a high functioning team, that would optimise outcomes for carers.

With Emily's professional support, it was initially the consultation process with individual members of my team that was the key for bringing everyone together with a shared understanding of our individual and collective strengths, and purpose. This primed us to safely exploring what was and wasn't working in our approach, and respectfully identifying opportunity areas together, via a series of tailored workshops.

"We had to connect to move forward as a team. Ultimately, it was a commitment to get Emily from Get Mentally Fit in to consult with individual staff member, and execute the support we needed as a team through this transition, that was 'GOLD'."

Growing high functioning life changers…

As it's often a very personal and emotionally charged service that Carers Queensland employees deliver, psychosocial safety must be managed effectively to keep employees safe. Carers Queensland clearly demonstrated their commitment to this ends when reflecting on the Carer Program team's capability building initiative.

Get Mentally Fit's control measures in action:

Building self awareness for self and collective care

Trust and a sense of belonging, individual talent, strong leadership, a clear vision and purpose, and achievable goals are common characteristics of any exceptional team. This demands commitment and bravery from all members of the team if it's to be realised. Like any team, for the Carer Program team the ingredients for success are the same.

1. Each individual member must be open to having a critical look at what makes them tick, and be willing to learn and improve. With our support, each member of the Carer Program team undertook a Mental Fitness Check. This supported them to find ways to improve the quality of their home, personal, and professional life. Not only did they gain greater self-awareness but they reliably put a professional capability building plan in place, to support their personal growth.
2. Collectively, a team must periodically stop to discover where they're at, how they're going, and dream and design where they're trying to get to next. Via a series of team workshops, facilitated by our Principal Workplace Psychologist Emily Johnson, the Carer Team took a deep dive into where they were at. This enabled them to undertake an appreciative inquiry workshop, where they collectively designed a plan for ultimately maximising how they help individuals live better lives.