Topic Tuesday // Let’s talk about systemic change: The Victorian Royal Commission // Tues 17th August, 7:00-8.30PM AEST

[BigFeelsClub]

Q5: You have had such a journey in the lived experience workforce @BigFeelsClub to get to where you are. What advice would you give yourself when starting out?

So my advice to my younger self would be: it’s going to be hard sometimes. And it’s going to touch some sore spots. But it will also give you a chance to make meaning from some of the most difficult times in your life. And to contribute to other people going through that same hard stuff.

Just don’t try to do it alone!

If you’re working in mental health (or thinking about it) you don’t need heaps of peers, but one or two can make all the difference.

[BigFeelsClub]

Q5: You have had such a journey in the lived experience workforce @BigFeelsClub to get to where you are. What advice would you give yourself when starting out?

If you’re struggling to find colleagues with lived experience, here’s one thing you might want to check out. Big Feels Club partnered with the Department of Health here in Vic to make a podcast series just for mental health professionals with big feelings - whether you’re in a lived experience role, or in a clinical role. It’s called ‘Big Feels at Work’ and it’s free to access.

Check it out here. (You might also find it interesting if you’re simply wondering about a career change into mental health.)

Here's one of my favourite episodes - where I talk with Heather Pickard, the incredible CEO of SHARC, an amazing peer-led AOD service in Melbourne. She talks about looking after our 'precious energy' - this delicate mix of personal and professional experience that mental health professionals with big feels bring to work each day. (She's amazing.)

[Bearcub]

Can i ask how Peer support workers can help within Acute psych units ?

[MDT]

"Making meaning of what we experience"

THis is an important way of thinking about it @BigFeelsClub

I appreciate you saying this because this means so many things to so many people

[Shaz51]

Ohhh this is good @BigFeelsClub , @Daisydreamer , @cloudcore 

[Mex]

one meaning of life is to give meaning to your life!

[chibam]

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@BigFeelsClub wrote:

When you’re working in a clinical system as a peer worker, there are all sorts of pressures (some obvious, some subtle) to get you to work more like a clinician (to focus on symptoms and medications, for instance, rather than sitting with the discomfort of not always having an answer or a fix).

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There seems to be almost a dual-minded contradiction in this, doesn't there? On one hand, I hear lots of talk that seems to want to discourage the idea of fixing problems, but then at the same time we are emphasizing the introduction of "wellbeing supports", which seem to be a whole new library of fixes for problems.

[Daisydreamer]

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@BigFeelsClub wrote:

Q5: You have had such a journey in the lived experience workforce @BigFeelsClub to get to where you are. What advice would you give yourself when starting out?

If you’re working in mental health (or thinking about it) you don’t need heaps of peers, but one or two can make all the difference.

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💜💜💜💜💜

This is so so true!

[Daisydreamer]

@BigFeelsClub 

Q6: How can I be involved in the change?

Q7: What are you hopeful for?

[BigFeelsClub]

"Can i ask how Peer support workers can help within Acute psych units ?"

Great question @Bearcub !

Short answer: peer workers can definitely work in acute psych units. I have myself, as a peer worker in my early days. 

Long answer: it's hard work though. Peers can be extremely helpful for people in those spaces - I know when I'm at my most overwhelmed, what I want is people around that just 'get' it. But what's hard about it can be the way that those environments often really emphasize clinical expertise over peer expertise. 

So there can be all sorts of pressures in that environment (some obvious, some subtle) to try to get you to work more like a clinician (to focus on symptoms and medications, for instance, rather than sitting with the discomfort of not always having an answer or a fix). When I would say the whole point of peer support is it’s different to clinical work, and we need to protect this difference.

So for me, peer workers can absolutely work in acute wards, but they need the right support to help them 'stay peer', and to help push back against the power imbalance, where clinicians usually have more in-built power. 

From the Royal Commission report, the really exciting thing for me there is: peer respite. So this is an alternative to the acute ward, run and staffed by peers. No clinicians. The report has promised at least one of these is coming to Victoria, and hopefully more to follow. Peer respites have been hugely successful in other countries, including NZ just across the ditch. They often have really high user satisfaction rates, and can help people stay out of hospital.