In the community services sector and caring professions, it is crucial for individuals and organisations to prioritise the protection of their teams’ mental health and wellbeing. This involves fostering a supportive work environment, providing access to resources and tools such as professional supervision, and promoting strategies to mitigate the risk of burnout and compassion fatigue.
By investing in these measures, employers can help to ensure the overall wellness and resilience of their team members, ultimately benefiting both the employees and the individuals they support.
The community services sector has experienced high employee turnover in recent years. This trend has intensified as the pandemic has subsided. However, investing in employee wellbeing services such as Professional Supervision and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) can help to reduce turnover by providing support to employees.
What is ‘Professional Supervision’?
In the community services sector, Professional Supervision is a reflective practice in which support coordinators, therapists, and other healthcare and community services professionals engage in debriefing sessions with a qualified supervisor as part of a self-reflective process.
This process is centred on applying theories in practice, addressing ethical considerations, promoting self-care, and fostering professional development.
These sessions encompass an array of topics, often including general debriefing, exploration of novel approaches, provision of informal training to augment knowledge and skills, or receipt of non-judgmental, constructive feedback, and an impartial evaluation of one’s client-facing methodology.
Professional Supervision serves to safeguard the wellbeing of our professional community and support the delivery of exemplary practices and high-quality services to clients across the Australian community.
Who will benefit from Professional Supervision sessions?
Counsellors, support workers, support coordinators, guidance counsellors, social workers, psychologists, and various other professionals, whether they are seasoned or just beginning their careers, find value in engaging in regular professional supervision.
This practice provides these professionals with a structured opportunity to reflect on their work, explore challenges, seek guidance, and enhance their professional skills and well-being. Professional supervision also offers a platform to discuss ethical considerations, complex cases, and new developments in their respective fields.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) mandates that Support Coordinators and other registered professionals partaking in the scheme engage in regular professional supervision as a part of their registration and ongoing professional development. This requirement is also observed by various other professional bodies and organisations.
Professional supervision is essential for ensuring that professionals continue to provide high-quality care and support to individuals with disabilities, while also fostering ongoing learning and development within the field.
What are the benefits of Supervision in the Community Services sector?
Professional Supervision offers many benefits for employees and professionals, as well as the wider teams and businesses involved in delivering services in this sector, including:
- Supporting the wellbeing of your team
- Reducing the likelihood of burnout and compassion fatigue
- Helping to ensure that quality services are delivered to clients
- Helping organisations to attract high quality employees
- Supporting compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements, including Work Health and Safety (WHS) and NDIS requirements
- Lowering employee absenteeism (‘sick days’) and turnover, and the costs associated with finding new employees
Why is Supervision a worthwhile investment for Community Services businesses?
In addition to the benefits of professional supervision for employees, there are also operational and risk management benefits for employers who provide their team members with access to Professional Supervision.
Since the Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022 came into force in Queensland in April 2023, there has been increased focus on employers and their duty to manage the psychological health and safety of their employees.
As an organisation passionate about supporting the community, we recognise that this comes with increased pressures and obligations for employers, but we also see the positive impact professional supervision can have on the mental wellbeing of our community services community, and its impact on reducing employee turnover.
Employee turnover costs companies anywhere from the departing employee’s annual salary to 2.5 times its equivalent (Source: PwC) due to the costs associated with hiring, induction and training, administration, as well as lost productivity of other employees filling in for vacant positions.
This is why professional supervision is a worthwhile investment for the long-term health and wellbeing of community services organisations.
Learn more about our professional supervision services
Footsteps provides professional supervision services in Brisbane, Logan, Toowoomba, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, Ipswich, and surrounding areas. We deliver supervision sessions by phone, online, and in-person. Our services include training to equip community services teams with the tools and techniques they need to effectively deal with and respond to client behaviours, as well as to protect their wellbeing.
Our team includes qualified and experienced Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Support Coordinators, Registered Nurses, and more. We are a registered NDIS provider with an understanding of the day-to-day role of professionals in the community services sector.
Contact us to enquire today.
