Bush Support Line

The Bush Sup­port Line pro­vides high-qual­i­ty, free, con­fi­den­tial, 24/7 tele­phone sup­port to the cur­rent and emerg­ing remote and rur­al health work­force and their families.

Any health work­er pro­vid­ing health care in a rur­al or remote com­mu­ni­ty can access the ser­vice. This includes nurs­es, doc­tors, mid­wives, Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander health workers/​practitioners, para­medics, aged care work­ers, allied health pro­fes­sion­als, interns and stu­dents. It also includes any fam­i­ly mem­bers of those work­ers. Our psy­chol­o­gists’ wel­come peo­ple of all ages, gen­ders, sex­u­al pref­er­ences and cul­tur­al back­grounds. If you are unsure whether you or some­one you care about is eli­gi­ble, or whether the ser­vice will be ben­e­fi­cial, sim­ply give us a call.

No. The Bush Sup­port Line is not linked to CRANAplus mem­ber­ship. If you would like to know more about CRANAplus mem­ber­ship and the ben­e­fits avail­able, please call 07 4047 6400.

The Bush Sup­port Line oper­ates 24/7 and you can call any­time to speak with an expe­ri­enced psy­chol­o­gist with rur­al and remote expertise.

CRANAplus pro­vides the Bush Sup­port Line with a team of psy­chol­o­gists who work 24/7 to ensure that the ser­vice is avail­able to health work­ers and their fam­i­lies any time they need. We are fund­ed by the Com­mon­wealth Depart­ment of Health to deliv­er the Bush Sup­port Line nationally.

Our psy­chol­o­gists under­stand the chal­lenges faced by remote and rur­al health work­ers and their fam­i­lies. These could include:

• Feel­ing iso­lat­ed, lone­ly, detached, anx­ious, sad, exhaust­ed, or overwhelmed
• Adjust­ing to a new role, work­place, place­ment, lifestyle, or community
• Man­ag­ing unex­pect­ed per­son­al, pro­fes­sion­al, or com­mu­ni­ty challenges
• Psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port dur­ing the AHPRA noti­fi­ca­tion process for the prac­ti­tion­er who is the sub­ject of the noti­fi­ca­tion and the prac­ti­tion­er mak­ing the notification
• Work­ing with chal­leng­ing per­son­al­i­ties or address­ing work­place bul­ly­ing or harassment
• Improv­ing well­be­ing and work performance
• Chal­leng­ing expe­ri­ences due to work­place prac­tices or expectations
• Recog­nis­ing and improv­ing low mood, anx­i­ety or stress
• Con­nect­ing with a pro­fes­sion­al to debrief, prob­lem-solve or decision-make

Your call will be answered by an expe­ri­enced psy­chol­o­gist who will lis­ten to your rea­son for call­ing, explore what you would like sup­port with and explain how they could help. You will be able to ask ques­tions at any time.

No, you do not need a refer­ral or to pre­pare. You will be sup­port­ed to share your expe­ri­ence and make sense of what is occur­ring. It is more impor­tant that you do not put it off.

Yes, you can. 

The Bush Sup­port Line is a safe place for peo­ple to dis­cuss their chal­lenges. Deliv­ered as a brief inter­ven­tion sin­gle ser­vice, you may be asked for lim­it­ed per­son­al infor­ma­tion like your name, tele­phone num­ber and cur­rent loca­tion. If you do not want to pro­vide your details and choose to remain anony­mous, we will con­tin­ue to sup­port you with­in the lim­i­ta­tions of the service.

A psychologist’s role is to sup­port you to make sense of your thoughts, feel­ings and behav­iour. Every­one can ben­e­fit from reach­ing out.

This is a FREE ser­vice. A psy­chol­o­gist can call you back if this is helpful.

Yes, you can. You can access the ser­vice when­ev­er you need.