Lived Experience Carer Peer Support Worker

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• Family/Carer Peer Position - Lived & Living Experience Workforce
• Make an impact on the lives of young people, their families and carers   

• Part-time opportunity, located at Austin Hospital in Heidelberg   

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 Child Inpatient Unit    

The Child Inpatient Unit (CIPU) is part of Austin Health’s Infant Child and Youth Mental Health Services (ICYMHS). We care for children from metropolitan and regional Victoria, NSW and Tasmania at present. The CIPU is a 12-bed unit which provides specialist inpatient psychiatric assessment and treatment for young people up to the age of 12 years with severe emotional and/or behavioural disturbance. Our community teams are currently based primarily at Austin Hospital in Heidelberg. 

About the role 

This role draws upon the worker’s personal experience as a parent, carer, or family member of a child with emotional or mental health challenges. Families engaging with the inpatient unit are often navigating a hospital admission for the first time and are likely to be in a period of acute stress, uncertainty, and emotional overwhelm. 

A regular day will see you:   

• Providing compassionate, trauma-informed, and recovery-focused support to parents and carers 

• Helping them feel heard, understood, and connected during this vulnerable period.  

• Working collaboratively with clinicians and other team members, 

• Providing one-on-one peer support and facilitates family/carer group discussions to promote emotional wellbeing, shared understanding, and empowerment.  

• Effectively communicating and skills and engaging with families, carers, and supporters in everyday, non-clinical language.  

About you 

You will be someone who has excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with consumers, families/carers, colleagues, clinical staff, and other health and welfare service.

You’ll further bring with you: 

• Recognition and understanding of personal experiences in crises as a parent, with the ability to use these experiences to provide empathetic and hope-inspiring support to others 

• A strong understanding of the Victorian public mental health system, including contemporary trends and issues from a lived experience family/carer viewpoint.  

• Demonstrated understanding of and empathy for the broad impact of mental illness on consumers, carers, and families.  

• Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, including expressing own viewpoints respectfully and valuing the perspectives of others.  

• Basic proficiency in computer skills to support documentation and communication requirements 

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. If you require any reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process, you are welcome to reach out to the hiring manager: Sandra Chirume-Chiguma, Nurse Unit Manager - Child Inpatient Unit at Sandra.Chirume-Chiguma@austin.org.au

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

Application closing date: Tuesday 19 August 2025