Peer Worker

Reference Number
- 55092
- Employment Type
- Fixed Term Full Time, Fixed Term Part Time
- Entity
- Monash Health
- Department
- Monash Health Drug & Alcohol Services
- Location
- Dandenong
- Position Summary
- Lived experience in drug and alcohol/addiction
- Level 2 Peer Workers (multiple positions)
- 12 month full time and part time positions available working across a rotating roster including Night shift

Monash Health is excited to announce recruitment to full and part time Peer Worker positions within the Monash Health Drug & Alcohol Services. These position will help establish and support service delivery from the Lived Experience perspective for the Public Intoxication Health Response Trial for the City of Greater Dandenong. There are full time and part-time positions available, all temporary for 12 months for the duration of the Trial. The Trial will inform service delivery of the Public Intoxication Health Response Trials across Victoria with further funding to be announced, at which time these positions will be extended to match.

The Public Intoxication Health Response Trial is new funding for a Trial service to promote therapeutic and culturally safe pathways to assist people who are intoxicated in public. The Peer Workers will report to the Grade 4 nurse on shift and be supported by the Lived Experience Team Leader, Grade 3 nurse and Peer Worker colleagues along with the Team Leader and Director Clinical Operations.

**About our Monash Health Public Intoxication Health Response Trial**

The Victorian Government has committed to repealing the offence of public drunkenness and replacing it with a health based response, in order to support vulnerable Victorians who are found intoxicated in public. The City of Greater Dandenong is one of four trial sites that will inform how this new public health model will be rolled out across the state. The trials are the first step towards implementing the _Summary of Offences Amendment (Decriminalisation of Public Drunkenness) Act 2021_, which paves the way for public intoxication to be treated as a health issue not a crime. Current public intoxication laws have caused an unacceptable and disproportionate impact on Aboriginal Victorians and reform is long overdue. Monash Health is continuing to work with government, Aboriginal communities, health experts and stakeholders to ensure a safe and effective model that strikes the right balance between protecting people who are intoxicated in public and community safety. The initial funding is for a 12 month Trial with ongoing funding to be confirmed.

**About The Role**

We are excited to announce Peer Worker positions with the Public Intoxication Health Response Trial, City of Greater Dandenong. These newly created positions will work closely with nursing colleagues, the Team Leader and the Director Clinical Operations, Unit Head, Ngwala Willumbong, Department of Health, Vic Police and Ambulance Victoria to better support and provide safer pathways to help people who are intoxicated on our streets. The Lived Experience workforce will assist in client engagement, de-escalation, triage, transportation and referral of persons presenting intoxicated in the City of Greater Dandenong.

There are full-time and part time positions available, all temporary for 12 months, working across a rotating roster of morning, afternoon and night shifts. There are two service components the Peer Workers will be rostered across:

- The Sobering Service/Safe Space which provides a dedicated safe place for intoxicated people to rest and recover, be engaged and supported to identify needs with support plans and follow-up referrals made as required. All persons accepted to the sobering service will be assessed as medically appropriate by either by Ambulance Victoria, the Grade 4 Community Drug & Alcohol Nurse providing Assertive Outreach and Transportation or Dandenong Hospital. This component of the service is staffed by a Grade 3 Psychiatric Nurse and Peer Worker, and supported by the Grade 4 Community Drug & Alcohol Nurse providing Assertive Outreach and Transportation along with the Teal Leader.

The Trials will inform what Public Intoxication Health Response Services look like across Victoria, with additional funding to be confirmed.

**About You**

You have experience, or are familiar with working from a Harm Minimisation Framework and purposefully sharing relevant lived experience to offer hope and support to people accessing this service. Preference is for experience as a Peer Worker in the Drug & Alcohol or Mental Health Sector, can demonstrate effective communication and people skills and can work effectively and respectfully as part of a multidisciplinary team. You have lived experience of the drug and alcohol and/or mental health service systems and a sound recognition and understanding of your own recovery process. You understand there are multiple ways a person can find recovery and have the ability to support people through t