Lived & Living Experience Senior Family Carer Peer Worker

Are you a current Austin Health employee?

If yes, please log in to the Austin Health careers website via ‘Employee Login’ using your network login details to search, view and apply for all career opportunities available.

• 1x permanent, full time opportunity
• Senior Family Carer Peer Worker
• Rewarding opportunity for an experienced Lived and Living Experience Worker to join a new Older Adult Community Mental Health Team 

Austin Health is the major provider of tertiary health services, health professional education and research across three campuses in the north-east of Melbourne and statewide. We have a highly engaged, diverse and collaborative workforce that is unified by our goal to help people live healthy and fulfilled lives. 

About the Mental Health Division  

Austin Mental Health Division provides care and services through a comprehensive range of teams to meet the needs of mental health consumers and carers throughout Victoria. Services in the Mental Health Division are located across Austin Health and the community. Employees may be redeployed within the MHD. All mental health services work within a clinical framework that promotes recovery-oriented practice and supports decision-making. This approach to client wellbeing builds on the strengths of the individual working in partnership with their treating team. It encompasses the principles of self-determination and individualised treatment and care.  

About the role 

The Senior Family Carer Peer Worker is a designated lived and living experience role within the Older Adult Community Team, Adult and Older Adult Mental Health Services (AOAMHS). The position supports families, carers and supporters of older adults experiencing mental health and/or alcohol and other drug (AOD) challenges, often alongside physical health, cognitive, social and age-related changes. The role draws on personal family carer lived experience and collective Family Carer Lived Experience (FCLE) discipline knowledge to provide holistic and sustained peer support.

The role provides one-to-one peer support, family education, carer led groups, system navigation, and advocacy. It supports carers to understand their rights, strengthen their own wellbeing and boundaries, participate meaningfully in care and service decisions, connect with appropriate mental health, AOD, aged care and community support, and identify their own solutions.  

About you 

To be successful in this role you’ll bring with you:

• Lived and/or living experience of supporting an older adult, family member, partner, friend or loved one navigating the Victorian public mental health system due to mental health and/or AOD challenges, including experience of the impacts on families, carers and support networks 
• Minimum of three years' experience in a designated Family Carer Lived and Living Experience, carer peer or equivalent role, including experience within a public or community mental health service or another complex service environment
• Understanding and application of family carer peer work values and ways of working, including mutuality, relational recovery, self-determination, hope, human rights, purposeful disclosure, boundaries, family-inclusive practice and harm reduction
• Commitment to collaborative clinical practice, working in a multi-disciplinary team  
• Understand mental illnesses that affect the older adult population and their impact on social functioning and health  

Our benefits 

Working at Austin Health means enjoying a strong sense of purpose, engaging in meaningful work every day. Our people also receive a variety of rewarding benefits, including: 

• Greater take-home pay through generous salary packaging, for living expenses, meals, and holiday accommodation. 
• A suite of wellness initiatives designed to support you, including discounted fitness memberships and special offers on health insurance, and a comprehensive wellbeing program. 
• Onsite childcare at Austin Hospital, easy access via public transport and car parking options. 
• Mentoring and career development opportunities. 

Work with us! 

We are committed to cultural safety and health equity for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander People. We celebrate, value, and include people of all backgrounds, genders, identities, cultures, bodies, and abilities. We welcome and support applications from talented people identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, people with disability, neurodiverse people, LGBTQIA+ and people of all ages and cultures. 

If you feel this role is right for you, we encourage your early application. Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply. What matters most is your passion, your drive and your willingness to learn and contribute. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and interviews may take place prior to the closing date. This means we reserve the right to close a job ad prior to the advertised closing date. 

All appointments are made subject to a satisfactory National Police Check and if required, a Working With Children Check. Austin Health is a child safe organisation, committed to upholding the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people in line with Child Safe Standards. If you require any reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process, you are welcome to reach out to the hiring manager: Rob Sharma, Program Manager at Rob.SHARMA2@austin.org.au.

Interested in finding out more about this opportunity? Read the position description for further details. 

Application closing date: Sunday 13 September 2026