RFBI celebrates national recognition for aged care research

• RFBI News

Sonia Lim 2 Dec 2025

RFBI is proud to announce that Project Thrive has been awarded the prestigious Inside Ageing Future of Ageing – People and Culture Award for 2025. The project was delivered in partnership with Professor Denise Jepsen and Associate Professor Monique Crane from Macquarie University. This national recognition reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our aged care workforce and driving meaningful, evidence-based change across the sector.

Funded by the Australian Research Impact and Innovation Award (ARIIA), Project Thrive addressed a critical challenge in aged care: burnout among carer staff. To tackle this issue, the project delivered a sustainable, multi-level capability-building program designed to help managers and employees recover from burnout, strengthen resilience, reduce staff turnover and ultimately enhance the quality of care provided to residents.

Delivered across 13 RFBI villages, Project Thrive engaged 859 staff and 120 managers through psychosocial education workshops. These workshops equipped participants with practical resilience skills and self-reflection techniques aimed at improving mental health and workplace wellbeing.

The project achieved significant results, including increased employee resilience and reflective practice, improvements in depression and anxiety levels, enhanced job satisfaction and organisational commitment, reduced employee turnover, a stronger focus on mental health and resilience training within workforce development, strengthened management resilience leadership and the embedding of wellbeing practices into organisational systems.

“At RFBI, the wellbeing of our workforce is a priority. Initiatives like Project Thrive address real challenges with practical, evidence-based solutions,” said Anna-Maria Wade, Chief of People & Culture at RFBI. “We’re honoured to receive this award and be recognised for improving aged care beyond our own organisation.”

As an ARIIA-funded project, the insights from Project Thrive are now being shared across the aged care sector, contributing to important conversations about the value of self-reflection as a resilience tool—not only for clinical staff, but for the entire workforce. RFBI is proud to help lead this important work and remain committed to supporting the people who care for our communities every day.

If you are passionate about making a meaningful difference in the lives of older Australians and want to be part of a supportive, forward-thinking organisation, we invite you to explore career opportunities with RFBI.