Peer Worker - Adolescent Intensive Management

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• Consumer Peer Worker (Level 2) - Adolescent Intensive Management Team, Austin Health ICYMHS 
• Permanent, part time position working 22.8 hours per week
• Help shape the future of Mental Health Services

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 Adolescent Intensive Management (AIM) Team 

The AIM Team is part of Austin Health’s Infant, Child, and Youth Mental Health Service (ICYMHS). It services young people from 6 local government areas of metropolitan Melbourne. It is one of several outpatient/outreach teams within the service. It provides intensive, outreach, mental health services including screening/assessment, treatment and consultation concerning adolescents experiencing complex social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties and mental health problems. 

The systemic framework of the service means that team members work to empower young people and their support networks to think about their difficulties in a creative way and identify flexible solutions to mental health problems. The AIM team also work collaboratively with their colleagues from the Youth Brief Intervention Service, who provide systemic and family-oriented brief interventions to young people and their families. 

In line with the Royal Commission into Mental Health recommendations, Austin Health ICYMHS services are currently expanding to incorporate 18-25 years in all its programs across the Banyule and Nillumbik local government areas. The service currently operates within business hours, with a view to expand operating hours in the future to improve accessibility in line with Royal Commission recommendations. 

About the role 

As the Consumer Peer Worker, you will be an integral member of the AIM multidisciplinary team, providing intensive outreach mental health service to high-risk young people aged 12-18 years, their families and wider service systems within the Austin ICYMHS catchment (i.e., Northern and Northeastern Metropolitan). Drawing on your unique lived experience and perspective as a consumer who has had support from a public hospital-based youth mental health team, you will contribute to the provision of recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, evidence-based peer support interventions to families and carers of young people experiencing mental health challenges or psychological distress.  

As a Consumer Peer Worker, it is expected that you will work collaboratively with AIM clinicians and broader ICYMHS staff and teams to support young people who find it difficult to engage in office-based services and are at risk of harm.  

A regular day will see you:   

• Provide peer support to consumers in the AIM, using personal lived experience to model hope and recovery. 

• Collaborate as an integral member of the AIM team to support the ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement of the agreed model of care. 

• Identify and pursue opportunities for staff education that enhance understanding of and respect for the lived experience role. 

• Participate in the Austin Lived Experience Worker Network meetings and peer meetings, contributing to quality improvement, policy development, and program enhancement within the Mental Health Division. 

• Build and maintain supportive relationships with consumers, using trauma-informed and person-centred care approaches.  

About you 

You will be someone who brings their unique skills and first-hand experience of using mental health services to this role. You will have a sound understanding of mental health peer support principles and the ability to use peer support to provide hope and recovery. You will also openly accept and reflect on the impact of the demands of the role on yourself and seek out support and advice to assist you in the role. 

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

• Lived experience as a person who has received treatment from a public hospital based youth mental health team, with the ability to draw on this experience to support consumers and collaborate with colleagues.  

• Understanding of mental health peer support principles and the capacity to use peer support to foster hope and belief in recovery.  

• A strong understanding and appreciation of recovery principles, including social connectedness, holistic care, and peer-led examples of wellness.  

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

• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team – confidently expressing personal viewpoints while respecting the views of others – and the initiative to work independently, when required.  

• Cultural sensitivity and the ability to respond to the needs of people from diverse backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. 

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: Rowan Chipchase, Program Manager Youth Outreach at Rowan.Chipchase@austin.org.au

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

Application closing date: Sunday 17 August 2025