Lived Experience Worker

Location: Melbourne | Northern Metropolitan

Job type: Part time

Organisation: Austin Health

**Salary**: $30 - $40

Occupation: Health and Allied Health

Reference: 2506

**_Are you a current Austin Health employee?_**
- **Fantastic Opportunity to Join our Specialist Eating Disorders Team at Austin Health**:

- **Carer Lived Experience**:

- **Flexible working hours**:

- **Exciting new program model**:

- **Purposefully Share Lived Experiences to Offer Hope and Support to Consumers within clinic and out reach settings**:

- **Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Care**:

- **Support Access to Mental Health and Community Support Services**

**About Austin Health**

Austin Health is a leading public health service in Victoria, delivering world-class healthcare to a diverse community across a range of services. Our commitment to providing exceptional care spans across several hospitals, including Austin Hospital, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre. Our vision is to improve the quality of life for our community through innovative, compassionate, and holistic care.

**About the Role**

The Specialist Eating Disorder Team within Austin Health plays a crucial role in providing timely and effective assessment, treatment, and support to young people who experience Eating Disorders together with supporting their carers/ families. As a Carer Support Worker, you will be an integral and a highly valued member of the multidisciplinary team (which includes other Carer and Consumer Peer Lived Experience workers) by offering support and practical assistance to carers of those referred to the service.

A regular day will see you:

- Share your lived experiences to offer hope and support to carers, helping them feel understood and connected ensuring that they are part of their treatment planning.
- Work closely with service leaders and clinicians to ensure that carer needs are responded to in a empathic and family sensitive manner.
- Support carers to access mental health services and other relevant community resources for themselves to assist in ongoing treatment and recovery.

**About You**

You will bring:

- Lived experience of mental illness or mental health challenges.
- A strong understanding of the Victorian public mental health system.
- At least 2 years' experience working as a Lived Experience within a mental health setting.
- Recognition and understanding of how the Eating Disorder experience impacted on you and the family and the ability to use this experience to support others.
- Knowledge of support principles, with a commitment to providing support from a mutual perspective, sharing lived experiences to inspire hope.
- A deep understanding of recovery-focused care and an ability to work from a strengths-based approach.
- The ability to listen with empathy, helping people discover their own solutions and empowering them to take actions.
- Willingness to participate in ongoing training and supervision as part of your role.
- Effective communication skills and the ability to engage with carers in everyday, non-clinical language.
- A commitment to ensuring safe, best-practice care that puts carers and the consumers at the heart of the decision-making process.

**What You Need**
- Completion of Intentional Peer Support (IPS) training and/or Certificate IV in Mental Health or Mental Health Peer Work (or equivalent qualification).
- Australian working rights.

If you're dedicated to delivering compassionate, patient-centred care and want to make a real difference in the lives of young people, we encourage you to apply. Join us at Austin Health and be part of a dynamic team committed to transforming lives through mutual support, understanding, and recovery.

**Our benefits**

Working at Austin Health means enjoying a strong sense of purpose, engaging in meaningful work every day. Our people also receive a variety of rewarding benefits, including:

- Greater take-home pay through generous salary packaging benefits, for living expenses, meals and holiday accommodation
- A suite of wellness initiatives designed to support you, including discounts on fitness memberships and health insurance, and a comprehensive wellbeing program
- Mentoring and career development opportunities
- Onsite childcare, easy access via public transport and car parking

**Work with us**

**Interested in finding out more about this opportunity? Read the**position description** for further details.**

**Application closing date: 4 February 2025