For all people in Australia living with mental health and wellbeing challenges to live a life that is meaningful to them.

Position Details

• Full Time Permanent
• Hours: Monday to Friday 10:30am to 7pm
• Classification: SCHADS Level 3 with a salary range of $76,451 - $81,984 per annum + Superannuation
• Salary packaging arrangements providing tax benefits available for living and entertainment expenses increasing your take home income where part of your wage is paid tax free each pay, savings thousands in tax each year
• Location: Norlane, Geelong Medicare Mental Health Centre

About your new role

The Geelong Medicare Mental Health Centre (GMMHC) provides the Geelong community an alternative service to attend when experiencing mental health crisis. The centre provides free, immediate, short and medium-term care to adults over the age of 18 years with the aim of making it easier for anyone living in the Greater City of Geelong catchment to access equitable, free, and quality mental health support. We offer a welcoming place for people to access mental health information, services and supports from qualified professionals (clinical and lived experience staff) over extended hours.

Service delivery will reflect principals of Trauma Informed Care and Recovery Oriented practice. The GMMHC service will provide a holistic approach to care, addressing a range of social, physical, and emotional needs informed by the Collaborative Relational Practice (CRP) and supported by best practice in evidence-based and evidence informed care. The GMMHC service has a strong focus on lived experience and provide support via a high engagement, multi-disciplinary crisis model.

Peer Workers(PWs) draw on their own life-changing lived experience of distress, trauma and/or substance use, and their journey of recovery and healing, to support consumers who face similar challenges to their health and wellbeing.

Guided by Intentional Peer Support (IPS) and the National Lived Experience Workforce Guidelines, PWs provide consumer-led emotional, social, and service support through one-on-one peer support, facilitating peer-led groups, and transdisciplinary teamwork. In their work, they emphasise connection, mutuality and support consumers to explore worldviews and move toward what is meaningful to the consumer.

As well as purposeful use of personal lived experience, PWs draw on the broader collective Lived Experience history and social movements to explore and understand the impacts of stigma, discrimination and systemic harm. PWs play a vital role in continuous service improvement by integrating and elevating lived experience perspectives.

Drawing on strong relational and self-reflection skills, PWs apply the Lived Experience Lens perspective individual relationships, team processes, and service collaborations. As key members of transdisciplinary teams, PWs compliment and enrich the professional knowledge and skills of staff from other disciplines.

To support practice and professional growth, PWs engage in line management support, discipline specific supervision (where available), co-reflection, and peer community of practice. These structures nurture confidence, connection, and the development of peer work practice.

About Neami National

We're Neami. We're big believers in everyone having the opportunity to live a full life. We support people to achieve wellbeing and mental health outcomes that matter to them. We provide services across Australia for mental health and wellbeing, housing and homelessness, and suicide prevention.

For some people, this means having a stronger sense of self. For others, it may mean nurturing relationships or building the confidence to tackle tomorrow. We support people to improve their quality of life in a way that suits them.

We're proud to support 34,000+ people living with mental health challenges each year across Australia and offer services over 40 different Indigenous lands.

Values

Together with our vision and purpose, our values define who we are and guide the way we operate. They are fundamental to our identity, and we align all our actions with them.

• Connecting
• Collaborating
• Learning
• Belonging

What will Neami offer

• Generous leave entitlements including Gratis Leave, Wellness Leave and Parental Leave (pro rata if part time)
• Optional monthly Accrued Day Off (ADO) for full-time staff
• 17.5% Annual Leave Loading
• Flexible work arrangements are available for maintaining your work-life balance
• Professional development through regular practice development sessions and coaching with your supervisor
• Ongoing extensive in-house Learning and Development programs to encourage learning and skill-building
• Fitness Passport membership to support your health and wellbeing (available in most States/Territories and subject to minimum working hours and/or length of service)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through TELUS - providing holistic health and wellness supports and resources to Neami staff and their immediate family

What you will bring to the role

• Personal lived experience of distress, trauma, and/or substance use, with a focus on healing/recovery and the ability to purposefully use lived experience learnings to connect with and support others.
• Strong emotional resilience including the ability to sit with discomfort, distress and people in crisis.
• Ability to work autonomously, adapt communication to diverse need and maintain confidentiality.
• Ability to self-reflect, take on feedback to grow practice skills and engage in personal and professional development.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills plus computer literacy.
• Willingness to identify or be identified by others as a professional with lived experience of recovery
• Willingness to share and draw on lived experience purposefully in the role to instil confidence and hope in others about the journey of recovery

What the role requires

• National Criminal History Check (police check) - disclosable outcomes considered
• Current Working with Children Check
• Australian working rights

How to Apply

The terms and conditions of the role are listed in the position description which can be found on the Neami Job Vacancy portal (please select the paperclip icon in the top right-hand corner) or attached.

To apply for this position, please:

• Click the 'Apply now' button where you will need to create a username and password
• Upload your resume and cover letter.

When applying for this position, you are asked to tell us about your previous work experience, your suitability for this role and your answers to any target questions (where asked). Please include in your application how you would prefer to be contacted (whether via email, text or phone call).

If you have any further questions not addressed in the job advertisement or position description, or if you require any adjustments to participate in the recruitment process, please contact:

Darren Riggon, Clinical Services Manager - [email protected] using the subject line: Peer Worker (Full-Time) - Geelong enquiry via EthicalJobs.

If you are excited about this role, but only meet some of the requirements, we encourage you to call or email us to talk about this opportunity. We're passionate about creating opportunities and supporting professional development.

If you have any technical issues when applying for this role, please email [email protected] for assistance.

If your application is shortlisted:

• We may invite you to have an informal phone conversation to discuss the role and get to know more about your experience and interest and answer your questions.
• We may invite you to an interview (which may be in person or conducted online via Microsoft Teams) with up to three panel members from Neami.

Be Yourself - Neami values and celebrates diversity including multidisciplinary teams and the unique backgrounds, experiences and contributions that each person brings to our community. First Nations people, those identifying as LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities and culturally and linguistically diverse people are encouraged to apply. Our aim is to create a workforce that is accessible, inclusive and reflects the community in which we live.

Neami is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. We commit to providing accessible and safe physical and online environments for all children and young people. Click here for the full statement.