Youth Peer Worker - Child & Youth Mental Health Service

Are you a young person with a lived experience of mental health challenges?

Join the Youth Program Team at Alfred ICYAMHWS and make an impact supporting young people.

• Permanent, Part-time (0.8EFT / 60.8hrs/fortnight)
• Based in Moorabbin, with some travel required
• Lived Experience Worker Level 2.4 or Level 3 depending on experience
• Exciting role specifically for young people who have lived experience of mental health challenges
• Benefits – 5 Weeks Annual Leave, Salary Packaging & Novated Leasing 

ABOUT US

Alfred Infant Child and Youth Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (ICYAMHWS) is friendly to infants, children, young people and their families/carers.  

We provide accessible mental health services inclusive of family, friends and support networks.  

We are a specialist, multi-disciplinary and intensive care mental health service incorporating the lived and living experience of family peer specialists and youth peer workers.  

Our service is divided into two streams 0-11 and 12-26 years and includes specialist services in the areas of perinatal care, neurodevelopmental presentations, eating disorders and outreach support. 

Here at Alfred Care Group our staff share they are proud of the workplace at ICYAMHWS, including shared values and attitudes, inclusion of diversity, company culture, innovation and impact, and career growth. ICYAMHWS staff feel working at ICYAMHWS is meaningful as they experience a sense of connection in what they do, express feeling valued in the work they undertake, and that they are making a difference. We pride ourselves on taking care of their staff by providing support, supervision, reflective practice, education and professional development, whilst challenging them to grow.  

If you want to build a career in a team that adopts a family focused and systemic lens, and one which values respect, partnership and integrity, then click below to learn more about this job opportunity. 

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

"Peer work is the use of someone’s personal lived experience of ‘mental illness’, recovery, and/or use of mental health services to support other consumers."  (Department of Health and Human Services 2018)

As a Youth Peer Worker, you will draw from your own lived experience of mental health challenges to support young people accessing ICYAMHWS and inspire hope and encouragement in the recovery journey. You will be instrumental in bringing the perspective and voice of young people within the multidisciplinary team.  Youth Lived Experience Workers are not clinicians; however, they are as much a valued part of our service. Our Youth Lived Experience Workers have a key responsibility to help inform our service design and delivery. In this context, sharing insights that are drawn from your own lived/living experience may be really important in enabling a colleague or team to develop an understanding of a person’s experiences, or how we may be working and the potential impact of this on a young person’s experience.

A regular day will see you:

• Support young people who are accessing Alfred ICYAMHWS
• Work with other disciplines to ensure the young person’s voice is considered in planning and work
• Support and work alongside other lived/living experience staff
• Support service improvement activity

WHAT YOU’VE GOT

• Lived experience of mental health challenges as a young person and experience of utilising mental health services in your own recovery (essential Key Selection Criteria)
• For Level 3: 12 months prior experience working in a lived experience or peer worker role (essential)
• Recognition and understanding of your own personal recovery process and the ability to use this to appropriately share your story with purpose to support others (essential)
• Confidence and skill to communicate and advocate for yourself and young people in a clinical environment
• Australian working rights and current Influenza vaccination (essential)
• Current Victorian Driver License (essential)
• Current Working with Children Check or willing to obtain one, and be willing to undergo a Background Check (essential)

WHAT YOU’LL GET

• Relevant training (e.g. Youth Peer Support, Group Facilitation, Dialogical Practice)
• Regular peer discipline supervision, group reflection and line management supervision
• Support from the Youth Program team dedicated to promoting the voice of lived experience

OTHER BENEFITS

• Salary Packaging & Novated Leasing through Maxxia.
• Access to discounted gym membership for gyms across Melbourne via Fitness Passport
• Frequent professional development opportunities and regular professional supervision
• Located close to public transport and cafes

If applicable, specify specific requirements that you require in the cover letter or CV.  

If this opportunity sounds like it is for you, click the "Apply Now" button, including your cover letter responding to the Key Selection Criteria, and your resume.

For more information regarding the positions please contact Jessica Anson on 0437 863 358.

Applications close by 11pm AEST on the closing date. Please ensure your cover letter is separately attached.

NOTE: Applications without both cover letter and resume will not be accepted, nor will late applications.