careplans.io Dusty
Remote & Isolated Workers

Checking in on workers who work alone.

Dusty makes AI voice welfare calls to miners, maritime workers, FIFO crews, and anyone working in isolation — a real conversation about fatigue, mood and connection, with concerns flagged to your people for human follow-up.

33% vs 17%

FIFO workers reporting high or very high psychological distress, versus other workers4

WA Mental Health Commission / Curtin, 2018
A named hazard

Remote or isolated work is listed by name as a psychosocial hazard in the model Code of Practice — with regulations now in force in every Australian jurisdiction13

Safe Work Australia, 2022–2025
Reg 48

requires a system of work that includes effective communication with every remote or isolated worker2

Model WHS Regulations
~5%

estimated average EAP utilisation — as low as ~2% in blue-collar industries. The support exists; almost nobody calls it6

Industry analyses (estimated)
How Dusty Works

Three steps between isolation and safety.

No app downloads. No forms. Just a phone call and a real conversation — modelled on the peer-outreach approach that works in these industries.8

01

Shift-Based Calls

Dusty calls your workers at the start or end of each shift — or at regular intervals for fly-in fly-out rosters. No app needed, just their phone.

02

A Real Conversation

Dusty asks how the worker actually is — sleep, fatigue, mood, connection with family and mates. Loneliness is the axis FIFO research keeps pointing at,4 and a conversation reaches what a button press never will. Summaries and trends over a swing go to your team for human review.

03

Engineered Escalation

Defined triggers, named human recipients, an auditable trail. Concerns go to your nominated HSE or wellbeing contact — research shows supervisors are the least-trusted resource for mental-health concerns, so they're never the only pathway.8 A worker in genuine distress is warmly connected to human help on the call.

Use Cases

Built for the hardest, most remote places on earth.

From the Pilbara to the Timor Sea — Dusty reaches workers where no one else can.

Mining & Resources

Welfare checks for FIFO workers, underground miners, and remote processing plant operators across shifts and rosters.

Maritime & Offshore

Check-ins for offshore platform workers, commercial fishers, and port operators working long isolated shifts.

Pastoral & Farming

Daily welfare calls for station workers, drovers, and rural communities where the nearest neighbour is hours away.

FIFO & Long-Haul

Wellbeing monitoring for fly-in fly-out workers and long-haul drivers facing extended isolation from family.

Remote Construction

Safety check-ins for workers on remote infrastructure projects — pipelines, rail lines, telecommunications towers.

WHS Compliance

Documented welfare checks that support WHS duty-of-care obligations for remote and isolated work, with full audit trails.2

Compliance

Duty of care, documented.

Every call is transcribed, logged and time-stamped — a documented record of scheduled welfare conversations and escalations that supports your duty-of-care evidence.

A named hazard, a specific duty

Remote or isolated work isn't an inference — it's listed by name as a psychosocial hazard in Safe Work Australia's model Code of Practice,1 with regulations now in force in every Australian jurisdiction.3 Regulation 48 requires a system of work that includes effective communication with remote and isolated workers.2 Dusty is one administrative control that supports you in managing that hazard — it does not by itself satisfy the duty.

Duty-of-care evidence & ISO 45001 alignment

Scheduled, logged welfare conversations with escalation records — documentation that supports your psychosocial risk-management process and WHS duty-of-care evidence. Aligned with ISO 45001 OHS management-system thinking (an alignment claim, not certification). WA FIFO operators also have the country's only hazard-specific FIFO code of practice to evidence against.7

The gap between the duress button and the EAP

Duress alarms and journey management confirm the body is safe; EAPs sit largely uncalled at roughly 5% utilisation.6 Dusty is the wellbeing conversation in between — sitting on top of your existing emergency layer as the psychosocial control, with warm referral to EAP, MATES and GPs.

What Dusty is not

  • Not a duress, man-down, emergency-response or journey-management system — and not a substitute for one. Dusty complements your existing emergency layer; a missed Dusty call must never be a site's only emergency trigger.
  • Not a compliance guarantee. Compliance with WHS and psychosocial regulations is your own risk-management process; Dusty supports it as one control within your system of work — deploying Dusty does not make a PCBU compliant.
  • Not clinical care. Dusty is wellbeing support — fatigue, mood and isolation conversations with warm referral. It does not diagnose, treat, or detect mental-health conditions.
  • Not yet trialled as a modality. Dusty's approach is modelled on the human peer-outreach and check-in evidence in these industries;8 no controlled trials of AI voice welfare calls exist, and we make no efficacy claims for the AI modality itself.
The Engine

Dusty is a persona powered by Kate.

Every call Dusty makes is orchestrated by Kate — the coordination and voice engine behind the careplans.io family. Kate handles scheduling, conversation, emotion and fatigue signals, risk detection and escalation across every persona and vertical. Dusty is the remote-worker face of that engine.

Trust & Security

Built for sensitive workforce data.

Australian data residency

Call data is stored in AWS Sydney (Australia). AI processing currently runs in the US (Anthropic and Hume); a zero-data-retention configuration is in progress.

Security posture

Essential Eight Maturity Level 3 controls implemented. ISO 27001:2022 aligned, with certification in progress.

Your data is not used for training

Built on Claude and Hume EVI under enterprise terms. We do not train models on customer or worker data.

A support tool, not a clinician

Dusty is a wellbeing-support tool, not a medical device and not a crisis service. Independent testing has shown generic AI chatbots routinely mishandle moments of crisis9 — which is exactly why Dusty's escalation path is engineered, rehearsed and human-terminating. A worker in distress is pointed to MATES on 1300 642 111, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 000 in an emergency.

If you or a workmate needs support now: MATES in Construction 1300 642 111 · Lifeline 13 11 14 · In an emergency call 000.

Your workers shouldn't have to struggle in silence.

Nineteen years of coronial data show suicide rates among male mining workers are significantly higher than other workers — and rising.5 We're in discussion with mining companies, maritime operators, and remote employers across Australia to pilot Dusty. Talk to us about supporting your people.

Talk to Us About a Pilot

Or email us directly at andrew@careplans.io

Sources

  1. Safe Work Australia, Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (July 2022). Lists "remote or isolated work" by name among the psychosocial hazards a PCBU must identify and control.
  2. Model WHS Regulations, reg 48 (mirrored in state instruments, e.g. NSW Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017, s48): a PCBU managing risks of remote or isolated work "must provide a system of work that includes effective communication with the worker." Regulation numbering varies by jurisdiction.
  3. Psychosocial-hazard regulations are in force in every Australian jurisdiction: NSW (Oct 2022), WA (Dec 2022), Qld (Apr 2023, code with regulatory force), Commonwealth (Apr 2023), SA/Tas/ACT/NT (2023–2026), and Victoria last (OHS psychosocial regulations, 1 Dec 2025).
  4. Centre for Transformative Work Design (Curtin University) for the WA Mental Health Commission, Impact of FIFO work arrangements on the mental health and wellbeing of FIFO workers (2018; survey N>3,000 plus 59-study review): 33% of FIFO workers reported high or very high psychological distress versus 17% of non-FIFO workers; loneliness linked to the majority of wellbeing measures. A 2018 study — still the canonical national figure.
  5. Analysis of 19 years of Australian coronial data, 2001–2019 (Safety and Health at Work, 2023): male mining-worker suicide rates of approximately 11–25 per 100,000, significantly higher than other workers in 2012–2019 and rising.
  6. Industry analyses of Australian Employee Assistance Program utilisation (e.g. Sonder, 2024): average utilisation estimated around 5%, as low as ~2% in construction and blue-collar industries, despite most large employers offering an EAP. Estimated figures.
  7. WorkSafe WA, Mentally healthy workplaces for fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers in the resources and construction sectors — code of practice (2019, in force; a replacement psychosocial FIFO code was drafted for consultation in 2024).
  8. MATES in Construction (24/7 support line 1300 642 111); systematic review in Health Promotion International (2023; 12 studies, 2010–2023): peer-based outreach improved suicide-prevention literacy and help-seeking intentions and reduced stigma, with MATES research finding supervisors the least-trusted resource for mental-health concerns. No controlled or experimental evaluations to date — promising, not proven.
  9. 2026 independent evaluation of 29 mental-health chatbots found none responded adequately to suicidal messaging (Scienceline, 2026, reporting peer-reviewed testing). Dusty's design assumes AI alone is not safe for crisis moments.

Statistics describe population research and the regulatory landscape, not Dusty's own outcomes; Dusty's effectiveness is under evaluation. Dusty supports — and does not by itself satisfy — WHS compliance, and is not a substitute for duress, emergency-response or journey-management systems.