About Us
The Gold Coast Health Mental Health and Specialist Services’ Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce is a lived/living experience workforce composed of people with their own experiences of mental health challenges, mental health service use and personal recovery, or supporting someone through these experiences.
The workforce provides a responsive program of recovery-oriented peer connection, education and information for consumers, families, carers, kin and unpaid natural support people.
The goal of the workforce is to increase the involvement of consumers, families and carers in their own mental health care, and encourage their participation in the planning, delivery and evaluation of mental health services.
Our work is guided by the Queensland Health Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Framework and the National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines.
What we do
It is the role of Lived Experience workers is to walk alongside consumers and carers to support them on their personal recovery journeys.
Lived Experience workers can offer support by:
- Listening to the experiences of those we support
- Intentionally sharing our own experiences
- Having conversations about and encouraging personal and family recovery
- Focusing on strengths, resilience and wellness
- Promoting the rights of consumers and carers to participate in decisions regarding treatment and care
- Promoting and assisting with self-advocacy skills
- Providing information about other available support services
Who can access this service
Consumer Peer Support is available to anyone engaged with Gold Coast Health Mental Health & Specialty Services, and Family-Carer Peer Support is available to their families, carers, kin and unpaid natural support people.
How to access this service
Several GCH mental health services have Peer Workers and Family-Carer Peer Workers embedded within their team structures who are available to provide direct peer engagement within the service environment. For those services that do not, Peer Support and Family-Carer Peer Support can be accessed by requesting a referral through your or your loved one’s Nurse, Recovery Clinician or other Primary Service Provider.
Peer Workers provide direct peer engagement to consumers within the hospital environment, whereas Family-Carer Peer Workers typically provide outreach engagement to families and carers over the phone.
