Mental Health Lived Experience Worker

• Location: Brisbane North
• Fixed term role to 30 June 2026
• Part-time, 22.8 hours (3 days) per week
• Salary sacrifice to maximise your take home pay
• Great team culture - We won 2025 workplace of the year

Footprints Community is a well-regarded not-for-profit provider of community-based services, working in the community for over 30 years. We specialise in working with older people, those that experience disability, mental illness, as well as those who are at risk of homelessness.

About the Role

The Lived Experience Worker in Mental Health will be working within the ?Recovery and Wellness Program? and the ?Peer Based Group Support Program? to provide open, recovery based, and holistic support to clients accessing these services. Providing intentional Peer work that will aim to empower and support the individual?s mental health recovery journey. This will be provided by a holistic approach through 1:1 supports and within group settings.

The position of Lived Experience worker is to utilise your own life experience of mental health and personal recovery. You will aim to skill build, nurture hope and personal-empowerment journey to inspire the people that you support to move forward with their mental health recovery journey.

Responsibilities

• Provide holistic, intentional peer-support to those experiencing mental health distress or challenges.
• Practice professional peer worker through the Footprints? Lived Experience Practice Framework.
• Work collaboratively with clients through their recovery journey.
• Engaging in information gathering to provide client centred options to the client that address their needs and goals.
• Advocating for clients through systemic barriers and providing them with the skills to overcome obstacles and achieve goals on their own.
• Support clients to discover opportunities to learn, grow and become more confident/improve self-esteem.
• Providing hope and support through mentoring clients, promoting skill development, self-reliance and hope to a client.
• Supporting clients to establish a sense of community and engage in activities in the community that are meaningful, and recovery focused.
• Share and discuss common experiences with clients to develop trust and rapport.
• Contribute to and cooperate with the measurement of program outcomes.
• Scribe case notes and other required documentation
• Undertake training and attend internal and external meetings as required.
• Facilitate and/or co-facilitate recovery orientated groups in a safe, respectful, shared learning space that supports recovery orientated skill building and acceptance in a non-judgmental inclusive environment.
• Present recovery concepts to clients in both individual and group work, drawing on your experiences as living evidence there is hope and life beyond mental illness.
• Participate in Peer Workforce development as directed by the Team Leader

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Capacity to relate to clients from a perspective of having a lived experience of mental health challenges.
• Comprehensive understanding of the recovery process and ability to communicate a lived experience.
• Ability to establish relationships and maintain appropriate boundaries with co-workers, clients, carers, and families.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment, skills to work cooperatively with other staff as well as working independently.
• Deep understanding of personal and professional boundaries
• Able to manage own self-care needs.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, and computer literacy
• Current class C Drivers Licence
• National NDIS Workers Screening check or current Yellow Card

Desirable

• Relevant tertiary study in mental health, social work, psychology or a related field
• Skills in counselling and motivational interviewing
• Current First Aid Certificate
• Experience in delivering psycho-social educational groups such as SMART Recovery, DBT etc
• Experience in Outreach community work
• Experience working with individuals with complex mental health support needs and individuals who are at risk of homelessness

What We Offer

• Salary sacrifice to maximise your take home pay
• Opportunities for ongoing professional development and training
• A committed and friendly teamwork environment
• Employee Assistance Program
• Great team culture - We won 2025 workplace of the year
• Work mobile phone and laptop
• Free Footprints Polo

In your application, please address the following questions:

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
• How have you used your lived experience to inform your practice?
• What motivates you to work in the lived experience space?
• How do you currently manage your self-care and emotional resilience?

Closing Date

Applications Close 12/12/2025

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted. If you have not heard from us by two weeks from the closing date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.  We thank you for your time and interest in working with Footprints.

To learn more about Footprints and access a copy of the position description, please visit our website: 

Contact

For more information, please contact Katie Nutting - Team Leader Lived Experience on

Footprints encourages applications from all people. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all employees no matter their sex, race, culture, sexual orientation, disability or gender identity.?Demonstrating our commitment to reconciliation and building long-term employment opportunities for First Nations peoples, Footprints strongly encourages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants for this position.??

Footprints Community acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and pays respect to Elders past and present and thank them for their wisdom and guidance.