As a mother, a daughter and a sister I have lived experience as a carer for loved ones

experiencing mental health issues. I am a passionate advocate for the value of the carer voice

in the mental health journey to wellness.

A qualified artist and flamenco teacher, mine is not the usual pathway to a career in the mental

health system. But I am here because I have seen the difference lived experience work makes

day in, day out.

A natural leader, I am respectful and outgoing, resilient and relentless. I use my engaging

interpersonal skills to have the carer voice heard in conversations with clinicians,

administrators and strategists.

I have had experience as a secondary carer, caring for my mother as she supported by brother

on his long mental health journey with schizophrenia. I have also pitted my will against the

disease of an eating disorder with one of my daughters and engaged children’s mental health

services with another one of my children.

I believe carers bring such value to the treatment of their loved ones – they know when their

loved one is unwell, and they can provide insights to help progress their journey to wellness.

Speaking up for the carers improves outcomes for consumers. I am passionate to bring the

carer lens to any forum or conversations I can. Being in the room is a privilege and an

opportunity to help deliver a more inclusive mental health system, informed and strengthened

by the carer perspective.

I have been a carer peer worker for six years and have embedded peer work roles into three

different services at Barwon Health in Geelong in regional Victoria:

• Adult Inpatient unit
• Aged facility
• Eating disorder team.
• Eating disorders day program

I have delivered training and educations sessions for Barwon Health and contributed to several

broader initiatives across community, policy and advocate groups.

Some of the training and education sessions I have been part of include:

• Onboarding and training of new carer peer staff across three Barwon Health services
• Providing supervision for these staff
• Facilitating ‘Safe Wards’ training for Barwon Health mental health
• Delivering lived experience education as part of orientation for all Barwon Health staff
• I provided carer perspective to frameworks and guidelines for our peer work

My contributions to broader community involvement for mental health and carers include:

• Ongoing participant on Discipline Framework Family Carer Expert Content Development

Group working with Tandem

• Rising Together project collaboration between Melbourne University, Centre of Mental

Health Learning and Tandem

• Facilitated the single session training to carer peers at the Bouverie
• Member of the Tandem expert advisory board for Community of Practice-carer

consultants

• Member of the Royal Children’s Hospital Carers Advisory Group

I am truly passionate about my role supporting carers and this has grown with each experience

in the service and with each family that I have the privilege to learn from, to grow with and to

support.

The last 12 months I have worked in the Eating Disorders team.

Families and carers need reassurance that they are getting best, person-centred care and the

need for evolving learnings to keep up to date with what is happening in the eating disorders

world.

My passion is to keep learning and evolving, so I can improve my practice and subsequently, the

experience of support a carer can get.

Eating disorder lived experience workers are different to mainstream. We are integrated

alongside clinical staff to give a lens of lived experience to how treatment impacts carers - from

the first engagement to discharge.

The voice of lived experience is challenging, sitting beside people, speaking up for the carers

and for the team so that we best help our carers and their loved ones.

I had never worked in a health setting before starting as a carer peer support worker just before

COVID pandemic arrived. Connecting with other lived experience workers and taking every

opportunity to learn how to best work within the system meant I took every opportunity to

attend training relevant for my roles.

I continue to bring all my learnings back to my team and other lived experience workers who

work to involve lived experience workforce to enhance the experience to those who are receiving

care and those who are supporting them.

The training I have completed includes the following:

• Motivational interviewing

Eating disorders specific Ceed training

• Approaching work with interpreters in mental health settings 2019
• Emotional CPR (eCPR) 2020
• Intentional Peer Support core training 2022
• Single session peer work and family consultation
• Single session thinking 2022
• Trauma Informed Care training 2023
• TANDEM supervisor training 2024

I believe one of the fundamentals of carer peer work is the connections we make. The value for

our carers to be able to have someone who gets what they are going through because they have

been there can’t be underestimated. This empathy makes us good at our jobs, but it can also

have a cost.

It is important for carer peers to feel supported, seen and heard as we navigate the mental

health system alongside the families and carers of those on their journey to wellness.

I will do my best to listen and help connect lived experience workers with relevant resources

and practices. I will celebrate both big and little wins with you as well. It’s the little wins that

make all lived experience workers walk a bit taller. The work we do is important and it makes a

difference. There isn’t really one way to it, I look forward to helping people find the best way that

works for them and their carers. Let’s learn and grow together.