The research focused on service users' perceptions and lived experiences of the services they accessed during the COVID-19 pandemic in NSW, Australia, and on the experiences of community service workers in attempting to meet client needs during the pandemic. This approach provided an opportunity to hear from groups who are not regularly given a voice in research.

The study highlighted numerous challenges faced by service users during the COVID-19 pandemic. For those who were unemployed or earned less than the minimum wage, and people on temporary visas, the pandemic added to their existing financial precarity. Others experienced new hardship and needed to seek help for the first time. Service users reported that social isolation significantly impacted their mental health and for some, compounded existing situations of domestic violence. While participants who spoke no or limited English encountered greater barriers to accessing support, others reported that the initial response they received from a service had a significant impact on their feelings of self-worth.

Community organisations acted quickly under strained conditions to implement short-term crisis responses, yet they often had inadequate resources to seek more appropriate, longstanding solutions in the face of increased demand for services. While frontline workers showed great dedication to their work to ensure they were able to deliver person-centred responses while supporting clients remotely, they were often required to provide services beyond those which they were funded or qualified to provide, including grief counselling. The study showed that when services are not adequately resourced to meet the level of need, this has a significant impact on the psychological well-being of frontline workers.

These key findings point to public policy reform, identified by Jesuit Refugee Service Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, needed to enable governments and community service organisations to better meet the needs of potentially vulnerable cohorts in the event of a future pandemic or other major crises, such as natural disasters.

Brochure summary of report

'Building bridges as we crossed them': A summary of the lived experiences of community services users and the workers who supported them during the COVID-19 pandemic in NSW, Australia

Partners

Jesuit Refugee Service

St Vincent De Paul Society NSW

Project team

• Ms Maeve Brown, Assistant Country Director, Jesuit Refugee Service Australia
• Mr Nishadh Rego, Policy, Advocacy, and Communications Manager, Jesuit Refugee Service Australia
• Ms Rhiannon Cook, Manager, Policy and Advocacy, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW
• Dr Jen Couch, National School of Arts and Humanities, ACU
• Dr Sebastian Trew, Institute of Child Protection Studies, ACU
• Dr Jill Cox, ACU Engagement
• Ms Vivien Cinque, ACU Engagement