Mental Health, Justice Health and Alcohol and Drugs Services (MHJHADS) Division

MHJHADS plays a crucial role in providing tertiary and community health services directly and through partnerships with primary health organisations. Services range from inpatient hospital, community health and custodial settings. Service delivery encompasses a holistic continuum of mental health care by way of prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation options across the lifespan. Collaborating with consumers, family/carers, government, and non-government services ensures that healthcare outcomes and experiences are met.

Position overview

The Senior Consumer Peer Worker (ASO Level 5) provides non-clinical, recovery-oriented support to individuals accessing MHJHADS services by intentionally sharing their own lived experience of mental health challenges, service use and recovery, as well as their acquired lived experience expertise, knowledge of collective consumer experiences and peer work, and professional experience.

The role is grounded in peer support principles, fostering hope, mutuality, self-determination and choice through purposefully sharing relevant experiences. Peer Workers contribute to MHJHADS’ strategic goals by enhancing service engagement, promoting recovery-focused practices, and supporting the development of inclusive, person-centred mental health services. This position plays a key role in reducing stigma and strengthening the voice of lived experience within the mental health system. More specifically the role:

• Provides direct support to  consumers:
  • Peer support for consumers in  inpatient mental health services to build reciprocal, non-hierarchical  relationships that support connection, hope and mutuality.
  • Support consumers to explore  meaning, identity, power and choice
  • Assist consumers to better  navigate the mental health system post discharge for up to 8 weeks.
• Provides guidance, mentoring  and supervision/co-reflection to build confidence, identify appropriate  boundaries, reflect on power dynamics, and ensure fidelity and integrity to  Lived Experience work.
• Uses lived experience  knowledge and frameworks to inform service design, policy input and quality  improvement initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Under general direction, this role will work independently to undertake the following:

1. Service delivery in line with the relevant model of service:
   • Provide direct peer support with individuals accessing MHJHADS services:
     • Intentionally and appropriately sharing lived experience with consumers to build rapport, foster hope, support community connections and normalise mental illness, recovery and help-seeking.
     • Assisting service participants to be aware of relevant information including service orientation, rights and responsibilities and available support options.
     • Support service participants to navigate mental health services and access relevant supports, resources, and opportunities for social inclusion.

• Ensuring practice is trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and respectful of diverse worldviews, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people of diverse genders and sexualities, people with neurodiversity, people with disability, and other marginalised groups.
• Use recovery-oriented frameworks and tools to support reflective conversations, about recovery, identity, strengths and self-defined priorities/goals while incorporating personal meaning, cultural context and social determinants.
• Collaborate with the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to enable optimal outcomes for consumers.
• Contribute to the development of and facilitate/co-facilitate groups.
• Appropriately document participant interactions in the Digital Health Record (DHR) to ensure continuity of care, accountability and effective communication with other professionals. Support other Peer Workers to appropriately document participant interactions in the DHR.
• Uphold and model consumer confidentiality and privacy in line with legislative and organisational policy requirements.
• Uphold and model ethical standards and boundaries consistent with peer work principles and CHS and MHJHADS policies and procedures.

2. Leadership:

• Lead by example including modelling collaboration and accountability, promoting a growth mindset and contributing to a collective culture of care.
• Provide on-the-job advice and guidance, mentoring, and co-reflection opportunities for other Peer Workers.
• Represent the peer workforce in meetings, team discussions and quality improvement activities.

3. Service development:

• Contribute to the development of a recovery-oriented and trauma-informed service culture within MHJHADS.
• Actively participate in team meetings, supervision, reflective practice and ongoing learning to support professional development and wellbeing, strengthen peer work practice and contribute to service improvement initiatives.
• Contribute to service planning, reporting, improvement initiatives, review and evaluation activities.

4. Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.

Competencies

Specific competencies include but are not limited to the following:

• Lived Experience expertise – effectively use personal and collective Lived Experience expertise (e.g. research about stigma, consumer movement history) of mental health challenges and recovery to build trust and rapport, inspire hope, model recovery, influence service improvements and contribute to stigma reduction strategies.
• Peer mentorship and support – ability to provide on-the-job advice, guidance, knowledge sharing, co-reflection, and mentoring for other Peer Workers.
• Collaborative practice –models collaborative practice with the multi-disciplinary team.
• Cultural Safety and Inclusion – actively supports culturally safe practices and mentor’s others in inclusive peer work. Upholds the ACT Government’s Respect, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Framework.
• Reflective and ethical practice – engages in reflective practice, ongoing learning and development and peer supervision, and models ethical decision-making and peer values.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Personal life changing experience of mental ill-health, service use and recovery.
• Prior experience as a peer worker for 2 or more years.
• Completion or currently undertaking formal training or qualifications in Peer Work or equivalent (e.g. Intentional Peer Support, Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work).
• Computer literacy at a level that enables use of an electronic health record system (Digital Health Record, DHR).
• Current driver’s license.

Desirable

• Prior experience in roles where drawing from lived experience is fundamental (e.g. facilitating peer groups, peer education, stigma-reduction activities).
• Prior experience mentoring and/or supervising other peer workers.

Prior to commencement

Appointment to this position is conditional on being granted and retaining appropriate clearances:

• Undergo a pre-employment National Police Check.
• Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy.
• Current registration issued under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 is required.

Important information

All employees are required to:

• Adhere to the Canberra Health Services Values and the ACT Public Service Code of Conduct.
• Act in accordance and comply with all relevant Safety and Quality policies and procedures.

CHS is leading the drive to digitally transform health service delivery in Australia through the implementation of a territory wide Digital Health Record. Computer literacy skills are required which are relevant to this role as you will be responsible for completing required documentation and becoming a proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems; once proficient, you will need to remain current with changes, updates, and contingencies.

What you Require (Key Selection Criteria)

These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience.

1. Extensive peer work practice of intentionally sharing one’s own mental health recovery journey and service navigation, and collective experiences of recovery, to support consumers, and model hope and recovery.
2. Demonstrated knowledge and experience upholding peer principles while maintaining boundaries.
3. Demonstrated experience in providing advice, guidance, mentoring and/or supervision for other peer workers, promoting continuous professional growth, proactive self-care and a positive team culture.
4. Demonstrated experience building effective partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, including the multi-disciplinary team, to negotiate and influence outcomes, resolve conflicts and motivate change, while upholding Peer Work values and principles.
5. Demonstrated understanding of, and adherence to, safety and quality standards, Work Health and Safety, CHS values and the positive consumer experience.

Work environment description

The following work environment description outlines the inherent requirements of the role and indicates how frequently each of these requirements would need to be performed. Please note that the ACT Public Service is committed to providing reasonable adjustments and ensuring all individuals have equal opportunities in the workplace.