Occupational Violence & Aggression Projects Lead

Occupational Violence & Aggression (OVA) Project Lead

Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (PYMHWS)

Fixed Term, 6 Months | Full Time 1.0 EFT | 📍 Parkville / Multiple sites / WFH

Lead safety systems and injury management for Victoria's first standalone public youth mental health service.

• Fixed term, 6 months | Full-Time 1.0 EFT | Hybrid | Parkville / Multiple sites
• Support the occupational violence and aggression program at PYMHWS
• Salary Packaging | 5 weeks annual leave | Monthly ADO

About Us

Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (PYMHWS) is Victoria's newest public mental health service dedicated to the care of young people aged 12 to 25. Operational from July 2025, PYMHWS is leading a bold transformation in how youth mental health is accessed, experienced, and governed across Melbourne's north and west.

We deliver specialist, community, and inpatient services from sites at Parkville, Sunshine, Footscray, Werribee and Cherry Creek. We work alongside families, carers, supporters and kin to provide developmentally appropriate, evidence-based, trauma-informed, and lived experience-grounded care.

We partner with Orygen, bringing world-leading research into care delivery. As we grow, we are building a service with – and for – young people, and we're looking for passionate, skilled professionals to help shape it.

Why Join PYMHWS?

• Be part of building a legacy for youth mental health in Victoria
• Work alongside passionate, values-led leaders in a purpose-driven organisation
• Salary packaging options, up to $11,600 tax free earnings
• 5 weeks annual leave plus monthly ADO for full time employees
• Flexible working arrangements including remote work options where possible
• Employee wellbeing focused, access to EAP
• Fitness Passport membership
• Opportunities for professional growth and development

The Opportunity

The Occupational Violence & Aggression (OVA) Projects Lead leads the development, implementation and continuous improvement of a coordinated, prevention-focused approach to occupational violence and aggression across PYMHWS. The role works in close partnership with clinical and operational teams to translate risk, incident experience, evidence and frontline insight into practical programs of work that improve staff and young person safety. The role supports implementation across all PYMHWS services and sites, ensuring initiatives are tailored to local clinical contexts, embedded into day-to-day practice and evaluated for impact. 

What You'll Do

Lead OVA Improvement

• Lead a focused program of work to strengthen the prevention and management of occupational violence and aggression across PYMHWS.
• Translate identified risks, incident learnings, staff experience and data into practical, prioritised improvement actions.
• Coordinate priority OVA projects from design through to implementation, evaluation and sustained practice change.

Work Alongside Our Clinical Teams

• Partner closely with clinical and operational leaders, frontline staff and Health and Safety Representatives to understand how OVA risk presents across different services and settings.
• Co-design solutions that are practical, proportionate and workable in real clinical environments.
• Support teams to embed changes into everyday practice rather than creating stand-alone safety processes.

Strengthen Our Controls

• Review OVA risks and the effectiveness of existing controls across PYMHWS sites and services.
• Support improvements to areas such as duress and emergency communication, work design, escalation processes, environmental controls, security interfaces and post-incident response.
• Identify systemic gaps and opportunities to strengthen prevention-focused controls and reduce risk at the source.

Build Capability and Confidence

• Work with clinical educators, leaders and subject matter experts to strengthen OVA capability across the workforce.
• Develop practical guidance, resources and targeted education based on the risks staff are actually experiencing.
• Support local champions and implementation leads to build sustainable OVA practices within their teams.

Use Data to Drive Action

• Bring together incident data, risk assessments, workforce experience and clinical context to identify patterns, hotspots and emerging risks.
• Develop meaningful measures to understand whether OVA initiatives and controls are making a difference.
• Translate insights into clear recommendations, priorities and improvement activity.

Create Sustainable Systems

• Help develop and strengthen PYMHWS’s OVA framework, procedures, tools and governance arrangements.
• Monitor implementation of agreed actions and provide clear reporting on progress, risks and outcomes.
• Connect OVA work occurring across different services into a consistent, organisation-wide approach that can be sustained beyond the six-month project period.

About You

• Strong OVA knowledge and an understanding of risk, prevention and control in healthcare or another complex environment.
• Experience leading improvement projects and turning plans into practical, sustainable change.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with clinical teams, leaders and HSRs.
• Good risk and systems thinking, with the ability to identify patterns, priorities and practical solutions.
• Confidence using data and evidence to inform decisions and evaluate improvement.
• A practical, adaptable approach and the ability to work across multiple services and sites.
• A genuine commitment to staff and young person safety and to creating safer systems of work.

Conditions of Employment

All appointments are subject to:

• Valid Working with Children Check
• Police Check
• Evidence of Immunisation history consistent with the role's risk category (Category C)
• Availability to work across multiple sites within the Melbourne metropolitan area

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you're looking to be part of something truly meaningful – we'd love to hear from you.

For a confidential discussion, please contact Kathy Smith at ***********@pymhws.org.au.

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Recruitment is ongoing, with interviews commencing as soon as suitable candidates are received. Advertising may cease prior to the closing date.

We provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to support all applicants. If you require any adjustments, please let us know via the application prompts or inform our People and Culture team if you’re contacted for an interview.