Study Group

I'll answer the best i can @AlwaysMyself

I really enjoyed the course, and developed a bit of a passion for peer work, so if you think you would like it, I fully encourage you to. It's a relatively new position so there's a lot of opportunity.

I did mine online here in Adelaide. We still did in-person study for some things and assessments, mainly because of all the role-plays. As long as the place in a proper RTO (Registered Training Organisation) you'll get a proper qualified certificate, so that would be the main thing to look for. Also having an idea of where you might do the 80 hours work placement. But they may sort that for you. As for fees, we have a pretty generous subsidy here in SA so it only cost me about $500 with a concession.

80 hours seems like a lot, but i did mine over 5 weeks with 2 days per week. But i'm sure you'd be able to negotiate with the organisation if you needed a bit more flexibility. From what i've seen, most organisations are very flexible with peer workers, as they will have lived experience and so often still have their own mental health to be mindful of, so they seem to allow for more flexibility and should have peer supervision as part of any peer work role.

Like I said, most places acknowledge that peer workers have that lived experience and offer a lot of support in the roles. Whether that be workload, mentoring, and peer supervision for feedback, improvement, and debriefing. We did have some peer workers speak to our class and they said their employers were very good at making sure they didn't get overwhelmed and worked with them to make sure and didn't go beyond their limits as far as stress went. You're also taught to take self-care seriously so that's a big part of the course.

I hope that answers some of your questions. I'm happy to give any more information if you would like any.

@AlwaysMyself

I did use my role as peer guide as my prac for my peer work course. I was able to space out my hours over 6 months. So that was very doable. You could possibly apply to Sane for a prac placement

Hey @MJG017 @Oaktree ,

Thanks for sharing your study journey/s with us! It's great!

Looking forward to hearing what the next step is.

@MJG017 , have you finished too?

Now that I’m nearly a month away from starting this mental health certificate course, I thought I can share my thoughts that I’ve been having as of this week.

im actually scared about doing placements because if you know me personally I genuinely struggle to come up with the right words and sentences to articulate when it comes to actually talking to someone, and so I’m scared that I’ll look like a fool or unprofessional to the clients - it’s even scarier knowing that either some or a number of them will directly point it out as well which is what I actually don’t appreciate from any customers or clients when I’m always there to try my best.

I have talked to my peer worker (who is ND like I am and she also did this course) and she says she finds it helpful to let the clients know about our struggles before the session starts so that the clients don’t get the wrong idea about us when it comes to helping them and doing our jobs. But even with that, still, having to do placements is really scary and nerve wracking for me as I usually come off as bored, a bit stressed and non-engaging which is another thing that puts me off from wanting to do it but that’s part of being autistic so I can’t do much to change that.

I’m gonna be talking to my social worker (who is ND herself also) soon, with regards to the placements for that course and see what she’ll come up with

I’m also not looking forward to return back to uni/study again especially when it’s face to face, and hopefully the Education Access Workers can come to each of my classes that are scheduled according to my timetable so that I won’t feel as nervous and anxious being in class full of people/students.

i was thinking of going back to studying I.T and finish off where I was at before I dropped out of it last year, but because a few of the lecturers in the I.T course I’ve done so far are sh*t, plus a lot of the students there are also sh*t I don’t wanna go back to it.

@MJG017

Hey @AlwaysMyself , I'm not sure where you can study it at your own pace. For mine, I had sessions fortnightly over a year. Then I had assignments in between.

There are so many peer roles out there - both for carers and lived experience. Then again, a lot are face to face.

I used my Peer Cert for this role here.

Thats quite understandable anxiety and concerns leading up to the start of your studies @Blackcloud . I am really glad that your support worker is someone you can talk to about it and get their perspective, especially as they are also ND.

I hope you can find some placements that suit your needs (i know this has been hard in the past), esp with being able to have time to think before responding. It sounds like a semi-realtime thing like this forum could suit you quite well. If you were to think about these types of support forums as an idea for placement, how would that feel? I know that a few other of the organisations have forums too.

I really like your inputs on the forum. 😊

@tyme if i choose to do it (later in year) i think i know which one i will choose (unless they no longer do it of course) due to both online self-paced and reasonable fees. The biggest concern would be prac work either being too tiring (in a short block) or too prolonged (if only 4 hours a week, for example). But that is a bridge to cross then. Who knows, maybe through my journey in the mean time with access peer support orgs i will build some future connections too for when i am better if i choose to go down the peer support path.

I found it interesting and helpful listening to a few MH workers chatting at the group i got to last week. They were there because of their own MH challenges. And it was good perspective to hear that not all MH workers are 100% coping all the time either. And its ok to have those rough patches too; just seek support or rest as needed.

Yes! I'm a peer worker and I have crappy days. I share it here becuase I want to be open and authentic and show exactly that - that we have crappy days too! @AlwaysMyself

In your area, look for courses that are providing scholarships. Mine was a scholarship, so there's no fees attached. I was also granted another scholarship which PAID ME to study, but I didn't accept that one because of the timing of their live sessions. Mine was completed 100% online. Most was at my pace, but even then there are deadlines when to submit assignments.

Peer work is a growing field and anyone who is interested, this is a good time. I'm not sure what it will look like in the future.

@AlwaysMyself yeah, I was thinking that using these types of forums as an idea for placements would be a much more suitable option for me, as it allows me to communicate with people through text/chat/online which makes it easier for me to come up with the right words to say and articulate in the moment I’m talking to someone than when I talk to them verbally.

I did email tyme last time about when the next intakes for the sane forums peer guide roles are gonna be and I’m pretty sure they said that they’re unsure about if the next intakes are gonna be held sometime this year.

@Blackcloud that's great you have already enquired 😊. I can imagine it depends on staff turnover and can be hard to predict when they need to do the intakes, and if there is their own set course to do also specific to SANE forum & program. I wonder if it's worth also reaching out to Beyond Blue about their online forum too?

Not sure who else does them, but I've seen they have one also.

@AlwaysMyself I can see that beyond blue has the opportunity for you to be a volunteer in the forums. I barely go on beyond blue and I completely forgot that they have a forum community existing on the website lol

I’ll see what I can do if I decided to go on with it