Hospital wards around Orange will have seven new staff working through them from the end of next week helping people in their darkest hours.
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However, these staff members aren’t medical professionals – they’re cleaners and footballers and teachers and everything in between – but they’re all people who have been through their darkest hours and no want to help others avoid the same fate.
The seven new workers are part of a new Mission Australia program to help alleviate the stigma and trauma from mental illness at Bloomfield by having people who have “lived experience” – either themselves or from close family members – dealing and coping with mental health.
As vital as the roles GPs and psychiatrists and all that can be, they might not be able to provide that role of lived experience.
- Steve Morris
Mission Australia secured funding for the seven staff to enter wards in full-time positions at Bloomfield for 12 months, with scope to continue beyond that if the program – which is the biggest of its kind in regional NSW – is considered a success.
The workers will be spread across all areas of the hospital, including the Emergency Department, to help patients cope with mental health struggles.
Steve Morris is one of the peer support workers who will begin next week.
The former rugby league gun has battled drug and alcohol abuse in his time in Sydney and Newcastle since leaving Orange a decade ago.
“I fell into some pretty dark places in mental health wards and went to rehab for drug and alcohol,” he said.
Having someone who had been through dark moments – or had helped family members who had – would be incredibly helpful and was something Mr Morris would have found useful in his time of need.
“That was the barrier I had, I was too scared and anxious to get help,” he said.
“Hopefully with lived experience people in those wards it can break down those barriers for people accessing help and make it be so much more comfortable.”
The peer support workers will provide support, both individually and in small groups, and will role model well-being, hope and recovery.
Mr Morris said it could be “daunting and scary” presenting for mental health conditions at a hospital and hoped their presence could help.
“As vital as the roles GPs and psychiatrists and all that can be, they might not be able to provide that role of lived experience,” he said.
“There’s a bit movement in Australia for peer work which is great and when you’ve got people with lived experience they’re pretty vital and pretty warranted in the hospital as well.
“You can’t go to university and study lived experience and you can’t put a price on it.
“This is a really big step heading in the right direction for mental health rehabilitation.”
Fellow peer support worker Carmel Aloisi said she was excited to get involved, and while she said it might be daunting initially, “once you’re there it’ll be amazing”.
Her co-worker Sarah Coote was to “empower people and provide hope”.
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