Career Journeys: Ross Jacobs is innovating support in youth mental health

People find amazing jobs on EthicalJobs.com.au every day. This is part of a series of articles that go behind the scenes to meet some of the people and organisations finding each other through EthicalJobs.com.au. 

Today’s story is from Ross Jacobs, who found his role as a Clinical Implementation Lead NSW/ACT at Orygen Digital on EthicalJobs.com.au.

Orygen Digital is at the emerging edge of helping youth mental health services work better with digital enhancement. They are the technology focused part of the wider non-profit organisation Orygen, who are a well known voice in the service delivery and research space of youth mental health.

Starting out with work

It’s been quite a while since I have thought about my first ever job, but I was particularly lucky with early pocket money employment right through to my jobs while studying. 

I started out in a Video Rental store in the country town I grew up in, and over the subsequent next decade and a half I worked in cinemas and bookshops too. The student dream job trifecta! In human services, my first job was as an Intake and Assessment clinician in a busy not for profit sector – and I’ve never really moved away from this space.

I chose to study a Bachelor of Arts, convinced I was going to become a writer of some description. Sooner rather than later, I switched my Writing major to a Psychology major and really loved it. I’ve gathered Psychology, Counselling and Social Work qualifications over the years. 

I fairly quickly moved from the intake role to join the agency counselling team proper, and from there moved to a youth homelessness organisation that was just starting up a counselling unit. Over my five years there I started doing Senior team responsibilities, including supervision, and this has set a lot of the tone for my work since. 

I then moved into management and oversight of a national service, and my love of the technology and human services interaction was born. 

Working at Orygen Digital

Orygen Digital works at the emerging edge of helping youth mental health services work better with digital enhancement. We’re the technology focused part of a wider organisation, Orygen, who are a well known voice in the service delivery and research space of youth mental health, especially in Victoria. It’s great to help get Orygen Digital up and running in NSW.

I’m in the role of Clinical Implementation Lead NSW/ACT, so I’m often working with the leadership of our mental health partner sites who directly deliver face to face services to young people. Our implementation work is designed to help the services develop their local workforce with digitally enhanced skills and to embed our online support into existing systems. 

I lead the NSW/ACT Implementation team who are deeply engaged with clinicians and services across the state, and I’m frequently talking to our funders and stakeholders about the strategic rollout and planning for the next stages of this.

It’s been deeply rewarding so far to offer an innovative digital intervention into places like Western NSW and other places outside of the Sydney metro area, as these are often services that don’t have the capacity to develop any kind of digital tool themselves. 

As someone who grew up in rural Australia, I get great satisfaction in opening up the treatment option for young people, no matter where they live.

Working for a better world

I have been engaging with EthicalJobs.com.au for years – it’s the quickest and easiest way to see what jobs are around in my sector (I’m pretty sure my last role at Canteen was something I found here too!). It is a space that I haven’t only applied for jobs, but have also listed them too in previous roles.

I jumped at the chance to work on a new project here in NSW for Orygen Digital – I love building things, and I have had a great amount of respect for Orygen for years. Once I saw they were offering roles outside of Victoria it didn’t take me long to apply.

What I love about this sector is that it’s full of people who have true passion for the work, and whose values are often really in alignment with my own. It’s true that you can make more income in other sectors, but rare that you can have as much of an impact on the lives of your clients. It’s also true that there is space for career growth, including income growth, in this sector if you’re hungry and ambitious enough!

To all the ethical job seekers who are still looking for their dream job, I’d advise to keep at it! Over my almost 15 years in the mental health sector I’ve seen people with amazing commitment and talent rise through the ranks and go on to do really transformative things. It’s a great area to work in, with people that you will learn from every day.