After a dramatic drop in demand in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a disability service in Far North Queensland is seeing a surge in people wanting to access disability support provider.
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ARC Disability Services Hub, in Cairns, saw a huge drop in demand earlier in the year, with some clients cutting down their weekly support from 40 hours to two. But chief executive Benjamin Keast said, in the month of May, clients sought an additional 1,000 hours of care and 90 people enquired about accessing the service for the first time.
Staff is excited to see so many people back at the center, but the rise in demand sparked concern about a growing problem for organisations like ARC, according to Mr. Keast.
"One of the biggest challenges will be finding the people who wish to work in the industry and who are suited to the industry," he said.
Thousands of disability support providers positions are estimated to be vacant across the country, and there are not enough trained people to fill the jobs. Mr. Keast said the issue affected regional areas in particular.
"The anticipation is we're going to need over 700 full-time equivalents by 2023," he said.
"And that's just within the Cairns area."
Mr Keast said demand for the service had continued to rise since May, which he expected would be reflected in the figures from June. National Disability Services chief executive David Moody said the sector needed to grow its workforce by up to 60,000 people to meet the national demand for services under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
"Particularly in regional and remote parts of Australia, we find there is a shortage of workers," he said.
"This can be because of the challenges of the work itself, particularly when working with people with high and complex needs."
He said low wages and competition within the aged care sector were also contributing to recruitment struggles.
"This is unfortunate in the context of our sector being the fastest growing workforce in the Australian economy before COVID-19," Mr. Moody said.
Staff on the brink of burn-out
Spinal Life chief executive Mark Town end said the struggle to recruit staff put existing workers at risk of burnout. He said over the recent school holiday period his organization had difficulty filling about 90 shifts per week at its Cairns centre.
"We try not to let it impact the service at the client level, but it certainly impacts the office and internal staff that does the rostering, who scramble to try to make sure those shifts are filled," Mr. Town end said.
"We have a lot of dedicated staff who will help fill those other roles, but we don't want to wear them out either.
Courtesy: www.abc.net.au