Workforce Survey Project

   
WA's inaugural survey of the community mental health sector workforce

  
In late 2025 we undertook a historic project, to conduct the state's first ever snapshot survey of the community mental health sector's workforce. 

The data collected will guide future advocacy and inform workforce planning efforts; and contribute to the emerging national profile of the country’s mental health workforce.

  
What the survey found

The survey results show the sector’s workforce is stable, with low vacancies and a high level of permanency.

Survey respondents identified structural factors, including commissioning and contracting, as the biggest challenges for workforce planning as well as attraction and retention of staff.

  

Key findings


Workforce profile

  • The workforce is predominantly female.
  • Most workers are mid-career (aged 26 to 55).
  • Qualification requirements vary across roles and organisations – many organisations require a Certificate III or IV for support roles, while others do not have minimum formal requirements.

 

Workforce size and structure

  • The WA community mental health sector employs about 4,650 people including frontline staff, non-frontline staff, and volunteers.
  • Frontline care and support workers are the largest employee group, making up just under 80% of the total workforce.
  • The peer workforce was the third largest workforce.
  • Much of the workforce is part-time, however about 70% of frontline workers are on permanent contracts, which is higher than some other states.

 

Workforce diversity

  • At least 40% of the workforce has lived experience of mental ill-health, regardless of whether they are in designated Lived Experience roles.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers make up 5.4% of the workforce.
  • Over 22% of the workforce are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD).
  • Just under 10% of the workforce identify as LGBTQIASB+.
  • The identified representation of each of these groups in WA’s community mental health workforce is significantly higher than in NSW or the ACT.


Sector trends

  • The sector expects demand for services to increase over the next five years and for presentations to be increasingly complex.
  • Vacancy rates are modest (below 5%), but there are recruitment challenges for Aboriginal Mental Health Workers, psychologists, and some other allied health roles.
  • Recruitment and retention challenges are structural rather than organisational and are consistent with well-known challenges for the sector – uncompetitive pay, insecure funding and lack of housing availability for relocating staff.
  • Targeted, system-level solutions are needed for sustainable workforce growth – longer-term funding contracts, consistent indexation of funding, funding to support competitive salaries, investment in workforce development and better support for lived experience workers.

 

View the full Community Managed Organisations Mental Health Workforce in Western Australia: Final Report.