Study Group

@Blackcloud

I am actually doing my placement as part of my peer guide role here on the forums. I still have 20 hours to go as well as a project.

Your course sounds exciting, please let me know how it goes

Hi @MJG017 just wondering how you’re going with the peer work certificate course so far, have you gotten to the placement stage yet? 🙂

Hi @Blackcloud

Thanks for checking in, I'm doing really well with my studies. I even won a 'peer work student' award! It was such as shock being nominated, then selected as a finalist, and then even winning on the night! So a huge honour, and something I'm very proud of. I'm really enjoying the course and have learnt so much. Im currently doing 2 days a week for my placement and just have 2 weeks to go.

How have you been? I haven't been around much and I'm not really caught up on what is happening with everyone. How are your own studies going?

WOW that’s amazing! @MJG017 Congratulations for winning the award, that is a huge accomplishment!! 👏

that’s great to hear that the course is going well for you! How is the placement going so far? Are you enjoying it?

I’m okay. there are days where I’m feeling not mentally well, it feels hard having to keep going on and push through every single day and feeling like there’s no hope for anything for me.

I’m currently volunteering as a crisis supporter though so being able to help others has been a good thing for me to do at the moment and also a good ‘distraction’ from thinking about my own issues I guess. I started volunteering for this role back in July this year. It’s alright.

I’ve also completed 2 units into my psychology bachelor’s degree and will be starting the next trimester tomorrow with another 2 core units 🙂

I’m also gonna be starting the Intentional Peer Support Training course too tomorrow, and I’m quite looking forward to starting it!

@Blackcloud

I'm learning a lot from the placement and enjoying improving my skills. There is a small possibility I could do something with some groups with adoptees next year, which would be awesome.

I know that feeling of pushing through every day... and some being far harder than others. 'Hope' is such a tricky one. These days I try no to look too far ahead, just take each day and see what happens. But it's always an ongoing struggle of course, and hope often feels like a luxury, or even an indulgence. But I do try to celebrate the wins, even small ones, and use that to keep me going. Knowing I'm using my time helping others is a big part of finding that ongoing motivation. I have complete respect for anyone who does it, so I think you're doing such a great thing doing what you are. It's never easy when we're still fighting our own battles. It can feel like a very lonely place a lot of the time.

It sounds like your own studies are going well. Well done on the completion of those two units in you bachelor's degree! I think you have that empathy and understanding to really excel at it, so keep going and be proud of yourself.

Good luck with the peer support training. I love the freedom and connection that peer work allows us to form with people in supporting them. It allows that connection that more clinical roles often don't get to form. Let me know how you find it once you start. I think you'll really enjoy it.

@MJG017 that would be amazing if you actually do that next year! i know you'll do amazing as you are doing now! 😄

It's great that you have this mindset, which I admire about you and others that have it too! -- to not look far ahead and celebrating even the small wins (not necessarily just the big wins). I guess because for me I still am not able to reach that 'ultimate' goal in my life that I would like to achieve or gain. Maybe time does require patience.. depending on how often I keep trying (or not try if I get overwhelmed and stressed about it)..doesn't help with the fact that i'm autistic and still not able to engage and maintain connections with others due to having communication barriers myself since I was really young. It's frustrating. And I have passive S thoughts.

But I hope by the time I get to see a support worker (not sure how often really...maybe per week or fortnight or something? but also depending on how much i'd be able to have remaining on my NDIS portal at the moment to spend weekly or fortnightly), then I guess spending some time with them might help me take those thoughts off my head?

Thank you, I hope I can do well on the units I'll be taking in this trimester too! And hopefully pass them as well -- one of them is a statistics unit so that's a little scary hahaha

Oh of course, I'll let you know how it goes -- I'll let you know about it maybe sometime a few weeks later because this training only goes for twice a week within 5 weeks.

@Blackcloud @MJG017

Hi Blackcloud,

How is the IPS training?

I would be interested in that.

I don't really know too much about it except that it was started by Sherry Mead.

Hi @Oaktree

the IPS training course is going really good so far. So far, we’ve learnt a lot about what giving support to clients is like in the peer work world & the point of doing peer work is being able to sit with the clients’ pain (including their feelings) and giving them the safe, comfortable and non-judgemental space they deserve without giving them any suggestions or advice. There’s a lot of interacting and discussions with other participants in the course as well.

It was very eye-opening and overall really interesting content. The facilitators are sooo nice as well & they make the learning of this course a positive experience!

@Blackcloud

Sounds like I did very similar stuff during my course. We learnt not to give advice and to just sit in the mud with clients. I am not sure if I would get much from the IPS training now.

Hi @Oaktree There’s only one slight difference between the IPS core training & the cert IV in mental health peer work. This is what someone said to me last time on a WhatsApp groupchat I’m apart of.

“IPS (core) provides tools that can be used for all kinds of things, for example a lot of people use it in their relationships and within their communities. It also provides an overview of what peer work is and where it comes from. If you really like it, there is also further IPS training available.

The certIV is longer and you need to do placement even if you study online. The CertIV focuses on the australian mental health sector, which is not a part of IPS training.

A certIV is a requirement (or can make your application more competitive) for certain jobs but those may or may not be jobs you want. There are also employers who will support you to do the certIV if you’re working there.”