Youth Engagement Coordinator – headspace Functional Recovery Team

•Work close to home, Mount Druitt hub and across Parramatta & Penrith sites
•Full time role offering competitive base salary (Social and Community Services (SaCS) + superannuation + salary packaging benefits
•Be part of a team that makes a difference to the lives of young people

About Us

The headspace Youth Early Psychosis Program (hYEPP) aims to provide early intervention services that are youth-friendly, accessible, consistent and seamless, and that provide ongoing care and support to young people with emerging serious mental illness, and to their families,

The hYEPP service assists young people aged 12 to 25 who are experiencing a first psychotic episode or who meet criteria that indicate they are at ultra-high risk of developing psychosis. Assistance is in the form of early identification and effective, evidence-based interventions delivered by specialist providers working together within a collaborative, accessible and integrated service framework.

Purpose of the position

We are seeking highly motivated and dynamic young person aged 16-25 years with lived experience of mental health distress and service user experience of related services. As part of the Functional Recovery Team (FRT), a peer support work force has recently been recruited. We now require a mentor for this new professional group, who will also coordinate an increase in youth engagement for all registered clients of Western Sydney headspace sites. This exciting new role will therefore provide a youth perspective and voice across all levels of headspace management.

Peer Support Workforce

Both the youth and family/carer peer support roles aim to instil hope and break down stigma within and across clinical teams, in order to promote personally meaningful recovery for every service user. These roles use peer relationships and the sharing of lived-experiences as their key ways of working with others. Beyond face to face individual, group and community work, the peer support workforce also utilises information-leaflets, email, phone, SMS and remote technologies (e.g. video applications).

Youth Engagement Coordinator

The primary purpose of the Youth Engagement Coordinator is to develop and improve processes and practices that promote client-led services and maximise collaborative engagement, primarily for registered young people across both the hYEPP and the headspace Primary Care services. A key expectation of this role is to support and mentor the Peer Support positions (2x Peer Support Coaches and 1x Family & Carer Peer Support Coach). As a coordinator, this role is not primarily expected to offer direct peer support. This role focuses upon: mentoring of peer support coaches, advising other staff and advocating management from a consumer perspective. Communication and consultation with young people registered with our services will be vital. This role will work closely with its counterpart in Community Development – the Family and Youth Engagement Coordinator – who will focus upon engagement beyond registered users of the service.

As a member of the Peer Workforce, the Youth Engagement Coordinator is a young person aged 16-25 years with ‘lived experience’ of recovery from mental health related distress and user experience of related services.

Selection criteria

These positions require personal and professional qualities that would support a commitment to engaging both our staff and users of the service:
•A young person aged 16 – 25 years with lived experience of mental health distress.
•User experience of mental health services and an ability to convey considered and constructive feedback to stakeholders.
•A young person aged 16-25 years with some experience managing projects and coordinating other people.
•An understanding of peer support and its role in recovery-oriented mental health services.
•A demonstrated ability to engage and support peers whilst promoting self-advocacy.
•Ability to work professionally within and across teams, particularly transdisciplinary teams involving multiple professions.
•Familiar with use of Microsoft Office suite or equivalent.
•Ability to provide written summaries, compose letters and create peer support literature.
•Ability to work across multiple sites (Penrith, Mount Druitt and Parramatta).
•Ability to work within and beyond office hours, flexible in order to meet the needs of registered users of the service.