Connect with people who understand what you are going through, seek advice and surround yourself with support. We're free, anonymous, and professionally moderated 24/7.

47,612Members
1,358,869Posts
1,400,000Visitors

Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

DaisydreamerSenior Contributor12 Sept 2022, 1:03 pm AEST

Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Hi Forums Community,

At the end of September, we would like to invite you to a week long community consultation on the SANE Forums to help us develop and implement a new employment readiness program (Monday 26th September- Sunday 2nd October).

SANE Peer Pathways Program

Background

The SANE Forums are an example of the amazing power of peer support, the way it can shape the lives of a community of peers in a mutual, safe and understanding environment. We have heard from members of the Forums, and our Community Guide team, that building skills and experience of offering peer support in the Forums can be a step into the peer workforce, or exploring employment in mental health fields as a career.

We need your help to develop a pilot program that will support participants to explore peer work as a career pathway.

Why peer pathways?

During recovery, there are times when we may need to take time off or face barriers to re-entering the workforce. Peer Pathways aims to support those experiencing barriers to entering the workforce, or who have been unemployed or underemployed for a period of time to gain support, training and practical experience in peer work.

This program also adds to roles in the mental health sector, as there are more and more peer work roles becoming available, but without the support pathways for people to try peer support, get foundational training, and have the opportunity to gain practical peer support experience before applying for roles.

SANE has been funded by the Department of Social Services to deliver a new program in a small pilot starting in three PHN regions in Australia (Wide Bay in QLD, Darwin in NT, and Hobart in TAS).

Our goal:

We aim to create a new pathway into the Community Guide Program and opportunities in peer support at SANE that can support those who have been out of work, or experience barriers to safe and supportive work experience.

We envision that this program will build on the principles and supports of the Community Guide Program (including training, mentoring and support), to provide new pathways for those to prepare for volunteering, education and employment.

At the moment, this is a pilot program- so we are trialling this program on a smaller scale to see if it creates the impact that we hope it will. Our hope is that if the program is successful, that we can deliver it more broadly across Australia. You are welcome to read more about the program here: https://www.sane.org/peer-support/peer-pathway-program

The consultation:

At the end of this month, starting Monday the 26th of September, we will be posting a question or two a day to hear your thoughts about the program to inform the design, delivery and evaluation over the next 2 years.

If you are interested in this consultation, feel free to click the "support" button below and I will tag you when the consultation starts. This is an exciting opportunity to share your thoughts and help us to build this new program together 🙂

- Daisydreamer and the SANE Lived Experience Team

66 replies

61 - 66 of 66

1...6 7

In response to: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

DaisydreamerSenior Contributor04 Oct 2022, 1:51 pm AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Hi @Little_Leopard,
That is an excellent point that having clear rights and responsibilities, and ensuring every person in the program knows of and feels empowered to apply their rights, is vital to preventing against exploitation. I am wondering if workplace rights and responsibilities, and where to get support if your workplace isn't upholding your rights, is something you feel we should be incorporating into the training?

In response to: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

DaisydreamerSenior Contributor04 Oct 2022, 1:53 pm AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Thank you @BPDSurvivor, all such important points. In particular, I really think the mention around learning and communication styles is something we should embed - each of us learn and communicate in different ways, and having a clear plan will help to ensure that each person's needs around communication and accessibility of learning is taken into consideration

In response to: Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Little_LeopardSenior Contributor04 Oct 2022, 2:20 pm AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

@Daisydreamer

Yes that is exactly what I am trying to say. That kind of information would be very helpful and empowering.

😊

In response to: Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Little_LeopardSenior Contributor06 Oct 2022, 9:56 am AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

@Daisydreamer

One more thing that is playing on my mind.

In regards to triggers how are we suppose to handle this with clients?

Even the best of us get triggered sooner or later by people around us. It happens to the best of us. I have even seen doctors and psychologists get triggered by their patients/clients. How do we handle this situation in a peer support setting?

I think it’s a good thing to know about in any health care role. So definitely worth putting it into the program.

In response to: Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

DaisydreamerSenior Contributor24 Oct 2022, 12:25 pm AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Hi @Little_Leopard,

That is a great question, and one that even as a peer worker it's something I regularly have to check in with myself. With our volunteers and staff, we provide training and support in identifying potential triggers, self care and managing when they arise. It's something that even the most experienced peer workers can experience, so we also have supports in place including debriefing to support Peer Pathways participants if they are ever triggered throughout the program. We also will support participants to make decisions about what topics they feel comfortable to respond and not respond to- there are some topics that each of us might know are triggers, and can do what we can to set boundaries around those topics to ensure personal wellbeing (our peer workers do this too)

Wellbeing is the number one priority 🙂

In response to: Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

Little_LeopardSenior Contributor28 Oct 2022, 6:01 pm AEDT

Re: Peer Pathways week long consultation - 26th September

@Daisydreamer That great. Good to know that a part of the program will include these self care elements. We have to stay well if we want to help others.

61 - 66 of 66

1...6 7