Introducing Catherine Turnbull the new NSW Public Guardian

This year's International Women's Day theme, 'Accelerate Action,' underscores the importance of taking swift, decisive steps toward achieving gender equality and we are proud to reflect this within our own leadership. Women now make up 75% women of our Executive Leadership Team and we continue to drive a strong commitment to accelerating progress in gender equality.  

Catherine brings a wealth of experience, having worked across Social Work, Allied Health, and Child Protection in both NSW and South Australia. Her dedication to supporting vulnerable citizens, coupled with her passion for equality and care, makes her an invaluable addition to NSWTG.  

Throughout her career, Catherine has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to the field, including receiving the Governor of NSW Meritorious Commendation for her work following the 2004 Tsunami and the International Allied Health Award for Excellence in 2017. 

We recently sat down with Catherine to learn more about her extensive background in the health sector and hear about her goals in her new role as NSW Public Guardian. ,

You spent 15 years working for NSW Health in social work, intensive care and emergency department grief and trauma; what were your biggest learnings and observations from that time?  

When people are at their most vulnerable, they need someone to advocate and explain with kindness and care, to help them during what is often one of the worst times of their life.  

The most important thing somebody can do is support people in learning skills to cope and manage so they have those skills in future. 

It’s often about walking alongside the person and supporting them to make the best decisions that they can at the time, without judgement.  

Can you tell us a bit about your experience with the International Chief Health Profession Officers Group (ICHPO) and your role in representing the World Health Organisation’s Western Asia Pacific Rim? 

I was fortunate enough to work as the co-convener of the ICHPO group and represented ICHPO as the Western Pacific Rim member, on a World Health Organization (WHO) rehabilitation group. We looked at rehabilitation services across the world, which are predominantly allied health professions providing services such as social work, speech and occupational therapy, podiatry, etc. This work aimed to get the WHO to recognise Allied Health professionals and their integral work. There was a lot of dedication to nurses and medicine at the time to focus on the upcoming shortage of labour in those roles around the world, but not much was happening with Allied Health, which we knew was also going to face a drastic shortage in years to come in Australia and around the world.  

I was part of this group for 5 years and whilst we sowed the seeds at the WHO in this time, the good news has been more recently within Australia where at a federal level the Department for Health and Aged Care is now looking at those Allied Health professionals and plan to address this shortage at a Commonwealth level.  

You received the Governor of NSW Meritorious Commendation for your role in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. What was it like working through that disaster and what did your role entail? 

I was working at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and I was responsible for the social work service that were part of NSW Forensic Medicine, who are always involved with working with families after a referral to the Coroner. The Australian Disaster Group was formed, and we joined to provide forensic medicine assistance for NSW residents and families affected. We assisted loved ones in NSW by working with the families here, and the teams in Thailand and beyond, to identify victims. This process involved interviews, photos and identifying features (tattoos, gold teeth etc) to assist the teams on the ground. Then we would assist the families in the repatriation process to bring their loved one's home.  

Were there any other pieces of work you’ve done in that space?  

Another interesting job was working with the NSW Ministry of Health during a media scandal involving missing body parts after an autopsy that was not disclosed, or no permission had been sought from families that a body part had to be retained. This was either for additional coronial reasons or because donations are sometimes made to universities for education purposes.  

Whilst there was often pressure to return bodies as quickly as possible so families could hold a service and grieve, some parts of the process could take 6 weeks or more depending on the tissue. Some organs were kept, but this was never discussed with their loved ones. They brought us in as social workers to work with families and figure out what had happened to their loved ones.  

In this case, records were imperative to our work, and ever since I’ve been a huge advocate for correct records management and processes, in case decades later, information trails and records are needed. Sydney University had been receiving the tissue for many years at this point, and their comprehensive records enabled us to locate information and inform families from decades earlier; a lot of tissue was located and returned to families if requested.  

I think most of the families were happy with just an explanation and someone caring enough to look for them. It wasn’t about the physical parts; it was about the communication and permission. I believe this process has improved since these issues were raised.  

Can you tell us a bit about your life outside of work and raising seven children whilst juggling such an impressive and demanding career?  

My husband and I have 7 children between us. I would say the hardest part was our 20 years in South Australia while co-parenting my four children across two cities. We did a lot of long drives from Adelaide to Sydney, including lots of holidays to show the kids as much of Australia and the world as we could. At one point we would fly or drive to Sydney every weekend to be with the kids and then when they became teenagers, we came once a month and on school holidays.  

Luckily, it was always the norm for our family, so we have juggled work, commuting and parenting across two states for most of our lives. My 29-year-old paramedic son is now flying around the world, my daughter has recently returned from two years in Europe and my other two are also living in Sydney. We currently have three children in South Australia with five grandchildren, and one on the way in May, so we will continue to commute for holidays and special occasions to see our kids and grandkids in Adelaide. 

What does a typical day look like for you? 

So far, 3 weeks in, it’s been lots of meeting people and building up my contacts once again in the NSW health, disability, education, NGO and aged care sectors. This role is all about communicating and smoothing paths with other partner agencies so that the staff here can do the best job possible. It has also been spent reviewing complaints. As part of that, I'm thinking through what we can do differently.  

I’ve been gaining a deeper understanding of NSWTG and what we do. It’s what I expected to a degree; the number of complaints was surprising, but nothing else has jumped out at me as being different to expectations, except the amazing warmth of all the staff I have met. Everyone has been so welcoming and are so passionate about their customers.  

What do you hope to achieve in the NSW Public Guardian role?  

For the community to have a better understanding of Wills, Power of Attorney (POA), Enduring Guardian (EG) and advanced care directives. I would like to see NSW become better at discussing these things and approach it as a regular family discussion.  

I’m thinking of new and innovative strategies to address this issue and the hesitation to discuss these things. I’d like to look at some system analysis and think about partnerships to assist us with this goal. It is through doing things together that we will improve outcomes for customers, reduce frustrations and increase the community’s understanding of importance of estate planning including having an EG nominated.  

I’d also like to support existing and new staff with the demand and pressure on our services, make NSWTG an employer of choice within the NSW public sector and support staff in career development, as well as building resilience and enjoyment in their work.