00:05After 14 years working with Aubrey Wodonga Health, psychiatrist Sarah Dahlenberg got
00:11the sense the care was trending in the wrong direction.
00:14Something bad, a critical incident was very likely to happen.
00:20She flagged the service was decimated and unsafe to the board in 2021.
00:25Two months later, a mental health inpatient died from self-harm amid a major staffing restructure.
00:32A lot of extremely experienced staff, psychiatrists, nursing staff, registrars had left the service
00:41because it had become a toxic workplace.
00:45WorkSafe data shows 20 employees have received work cover in the past five years for psychological injuries,
00:52while a 2025 union survey of the service's mental health staff shows the sickly culture continues to infect the workforce.
01:01Almost half personally experienced bullying and harassment.
01:06More than three quarters said bullying came from executive or senior leadership,
01:10and almost three quarters said they felt unsafe and scared to raise workplace concerns to management.
01:17I was bullied. I watched multiple colleagues be bullied.
01:23I felt targeted every time I spoke up about the issues that I had with the nurses being pushed to
01:30the side.
01:32Social worker Kelly Stastny left the service in March after reaching breaking point in her dealings with management.
01:40It became really disheartening to work in a service where multiple issues were kind of raised and it felt like
01:45they were dismissed.
01:46You want to sit down and look into the workplace, please?
01:49While long-term patients like Richard Hendry warn they're feeling the pain of staff turnover and poor workplace culture.
01:56It's toxic and it makes you sick and it makes people sick and there are elements within Aubrey Wodonga Health
02:04generally, not just mental health, that treat feedback as a personal attack.
02:10He warns mental health patients won't attend services they don't trust.
02:14The risk is death.
02:18Last year, a group of Aubrey Wodonga Health clinicians wrote to Victoria's Office of the Chief Psychiatrist,
02:24warning patients were at significant risk after key staff left.
02:28People are dying. They actually are losing their lives because they're so frustrated with the system or they get so
02:35unwell and the care's not there.
02:38The OCP says it's working with the health service to deliver a safe and high-quality mental health service,
02:44while the state government says it's also working with Aubrey Wodonga Health to improve workplace culture.
02:50The service has been at loggerheads with clinicians and even the community for years over infrastructure and culture.
02:58Its CEO and chairman of the board have resigned in recent months and staff say morale is at an all
03:05-time low.
03:06Aubrey Wodonga Health refused an on-camera interview, but says significant work is underway to strengthen culture, leadership and accountability,
03:15including how concerns are raised and addressed. Healthcare workers warn the service is too important to fail.
03:23It can equal really poor mental health outcomes and a lack of trust in the service for the community,
03:29which I don't think is fair and that our community deserves far more.
03:33Hoping for some form of recovery.
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