Interim Recommendation 06

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission called for more workers with lived experience across all levels of the mental health system.

The recommendation includes:

• improved education and training options for lived experience workers
• optional qualifications for lived experience workers
• adding the Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work to the free TAFE course list
• improved support and career structures for lived experience workers including coaching and supervision
• a mandatory organisational readiness and training program for senior leaders
• improved induction for new staff that recognises the value and expertise of lived experience workers
• a survey of workers with lived experience to understand their experiences in the mental health system
• ongoing accountability measures.

The Royal Commission recognised the important contribution of workers with lived experience. It also identified issues that contribute to the shortage of workers with lived experience across the system.

This includes:

• a lack of organisational support and leadership
• limited access to supervision
• unclear roles and responsibilities
• stigma
• workers not feeling valued
• the burden of being a lone worker
• limited full-time roles
• limited career opportunities, particularly in leadership
• low pay.

What are we doing?

We are funding programs to expand and better support mental health lived experience workforces.

The initiatives include:

Peer cadets for community mental health services

Victoria’s Lived Experience Peer Cadet Program creates career pathways into the lived and living experience workforces in partnership with community mental health services. The program provides opportunities for people undertaking the Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work to gain valuable work experience and mentoring in the sector.

The program commenced in 2021, with six organisations hosting up to five cadets each. The program has expanded to nine host services, with over 90 cadets participating in the program as of June 2024. Many cadets have gone on to gain further employment as peer workers, either with their host organisation or other services in the sector.

Standardised training

Introductory training for each of the lived and living experience workforce disciplines is currently in development, as recommended by the Our Future project report. Additional lived experience-led training from established providers, including Intentional Peer Support, eCPR, Alternatives to Suicide, and Hearing Voices, has also been offered since 2022.

Discipline frameworks

Four agencies have been commissioned to develop discipline frameworks that articulate the values, principles and scope of practice for four lived and living experience workforces (consumer mental health lived experience workforce; family/carer mental health lived experience workforce; harm reduction peer workforce; alcohol and other drug peer workforce). These frameworks will guide future training and development, and support consistency in practice throughout the sector.

Access to discipline-specific supervision

A program offering discipline-specific supervision for the consumer and family/carer mental health workforces is now in its third year of implementation. Eligible lived experience workers can apply to access supervision from a list of supervisors on the Centre for Mental Health Learning database. Applications open in June 2024 for the 2024-25 program commencing July 2024. More information can be found at Consumer and Family Carer Perspective Supervisor Database.

Training for consumer and family/carer perspective supervisors has also been developed and rolled out to increase supervisor availability and expertise.

Supporting organisational capability to support and grow lived experience workforces

Organisational readiness is essential to ensure safe and sustainable employment conditions for the lived and living experience workforces.

A new organisational readiness program, led by lived experience experts at Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC), will offer mental health and wellbeing services a supported assessment of their current employment conditions and will recommend strategies for improvement. There will also be grants for services to implement improvements.

Yale’s Learning Collaborative program will be delivered in Victoria for the first time, co-delivered by lived experience experts from Yale University and Victoria. The 12-month Learning Collaborative program will build networks and provide mentoring to improve participating organisations’ capability for effective lived and living experience workforce development.

Organisational readiness initiatives are expected to be launched in 2024.

Lived experience workforce data

In 2022, 342 lived and living experience workers and 42 mental health, AOD, and harm reduction service delivery organisations were surveyed as part of the Lived and Living Experience Workforces Data Project. This project established a baseline to help inform the development of new accountability processes. Future data will be collected through the broader mental health and wellbeing workforce census, with reports published annually.