Authors: Emma Cadogan, Debra Carlon
Year: 2017
Event: 2017 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Funding – Changing Models, Systems,Change, Innovation, Reform,Workforce
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: Consumer workforce development: Establishing a service for the provision of consumer perspective reflective support.
Unlike other professions, lived experience workers in mental health services do not often have access to consumer discipline-specific supervision opportunities to support practice development from within their employing organisation.
Access to high quality, consumer perspective reflective support is critical to developing and sustaining consumer workers in rewarding and productive careers.
The roll-out of the Expanding Post-discharge Support Initiative, where peer support workers are placed in acute clinical settings across Victoria, has seen demand from health services for provision of external supervision for their lived experience workers. There is currently no formal model or structure that supports access to this, nor is there any professional governance in place to ensure quality of supervision supports.
A consumer-led project has been established to develop and articulate practice guidelines, code of ethics and a sustainable fee-for-service model for the provision of consumer perspective supervision.
VMIAC will lead the project, in partnership with the Centre for Psychiatric Nursing and the Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with providers and end-users of the service.
This paper will describe the collaborative process for identifying needs, project planning and gaining funding, as well as describing forward plans for the establishment of the service.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: After this presentation, participants will be able to:
• Describe the keys to success for the establishment of the consumer perspective reflective support project to date.
• Gain an insight into the various collaborative engagement methods that informed the establishment of the project.
Learning Objective 2: Describe the service user, service and system benefits of providing the appropriate practice supports and training for lived experience workforce.
References
Bennetts, W 2009 ‘Real lives, real jobs: consumer workforce project report’ Our Consumer Place, www.ourconsumerplace.com.au/files/real_lives_real_jobs.pdf.
Teo Pou o Te Whakaaro Nui 2014, ‘Service user, consumer and peer workforce: a guide for managers and employers’, Te Pou o Te Whakaaro Nui, www.tepou.co.nz/uploads/files/resource-assets/service-user-consumer-and-peer-support-workforce-a-guide-for-managers-and-employers.pdf.
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