SWSPHN representatives attended the 2023 Asia-Pacific Health Leadership Congress in Canberra from 10 to 12 October, with the congress focusing on practical explorations for health leaders on how to survive and thrive through current and future challenges.
Our Executive Manager Corporate Services, Christine Turner, attended the conference with Acting Mental Health and Alcohol and other Drugs (AOD) Team Lead, Bessie Berberovic.
SWSPHN often sends members of its leadership team to the annual congress with the aim of enabling better leadership and, in turn, healthier communities.
Addressing some of the strategic challenges and successes faced by our sector, directly assists SWSPHN to better support the health of the South Western Sydney community.
Both Ms Berberovic (pictured top) and Mrs Turner (pictured bottom) presented at the conference.
Ms Berberovic highlighted SWSPHN’s No Wrong Door initiative as a collective commitment between local government, non-government and community organisations to work towards a no wrong door approach built around recovery-oriented practice.
The signatory organisations to the No Wrong Door Charter ensure people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness, and their families, are supported by a coordinated service system.
The No Wrong Door initiative and Framework demonstrated how change leadership evolves over time by continually identifying gaps, building on existing resources and co-designing solutions with key stakeholders.
Mrs Turner presented to the congress on staff retention, highlighting SWSPHN’s excellent workplace culture and diversity.
She demonstrated how SWSPHN has identified opportunities for improvements to retain our staff who bring to the organisation so many valuable skills and knowledge.
She also talked about the actions we have taken to reduce our employee turnover from 29 per cent to 15 per cent over the last 12 months.
Mrs Turner included an in-house EVP (employee value proposition) video to complement her presentation.
She said the EVP video authentically showed the audience our organisation and our people, rather than just talking about them.
The feedback from the audience about the video was affirming.
“The comment that resonated with me most was when an attendee said how impressive it is that we have been able to create such a great workplace culture with so much diversity in our staffing profile,” Mrs Turner said.
She added there was much to take out of attending any conference.
“There is always self-reflection and improvement opportunities gained, in this case with my own leadership in healthcare, but also how I coach and mentor other leaders across the business to be able to continue to a make positive impact on their teams and the broader community through our work,” Mrs Turner said.
“One comment has stuck with me and stands true through my own experiences and observations of other great leaders: Great leaders rise above the chaos; they don’t get drawn into it.”

No Wrong Door initiative
No Wrong Door organisations come together to ensure that, regardless of which door a person enters through the system, they are supported to access an appropriate service to meet their needs. Find out more
What’s the EVP project?
The project aims to uncover our authentic employee value proposition – what it means to work at SWSPHN, why people should join our organisation and why people stay – with the aim of recruiting the right people to help our teams thrive and shape our employer brand. Find out more