Council of Ambulance Authorities [update]

You would have received an email recently discussing St John WA’s attendance at the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA) Congress last week. The Congress is where all jurisdictional Ambulance Services meet to discuss common issues and initiatives.

At this event, SJWA won the Excellence in Mental Health and Wellbeing award for the organisation’s Inclusive Flexible Workplace Arrangements (FWA) to Support Work-life Balance in Ambulance initiative.

The award recognises the ‘ongoing commitment to providing a supportive and adaptable work environment for ALL team members’.

The AEAWA has long advocated for increased workplace flexibility and has faced resistance from St John for many years. Now that St John WA has acknowledged the importance of such matters, we encourage ALL officers struggling to appropriately balance work and life commitments to apply to St John to establish a process that suits their circumstances.

If your application is denied, please contact the AEAWA immediately so that we can advocate on your behalf.

In addition, officers should take inspiration from this award and seek to maximise their time off duty. They should consider putting processes in place to help them ‘wind down’ from the everyday pressures of increased workload and excessive ramping, which are resulting in increased shift extensions and a drop in breaks being provided and/or completed.