Peer Worker

• Full-time role with a leading, recovery-focused community mental health service

• Use your lived experience to connect LGBTIQA+ and First Nations participants to affirming, culturally safe mental health supports

• $40.49 - 43.42 phr (SCHADS Level 3B) + Leave loading + Super + Salary packaging 

Wellways is committed to reconciliation, lived experience and inclusivity. We strongly encourage and warmly welcome people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with a lived experience of mental health and disability and people who identify as LGBTIQA+ to apply. Even if you only meet some of the criteria, we’d love to hear from you.

About this Program

The Psychosocial Support Services has intentionally been developed through testing with participants, carers, and referrers to ensure timely, needs-based, capacity building services which not only support mental health recovery and exit from services, but the assessment and successful navigation through to NDIS and ongoing psychosocial supports under NDIS.   

Funded by Gippsland Primary Health Network, the Lived Experience Well-being Workers will support safe entry and  psychosocial services through the established through the psychosocial support program.   
  

About Opportunity

We're on the lookout for a passionate Lived Experience Wellbeing and Community Connection worker to join our dynamic Psychosocial Support Services (PSS) team in Traralgon. This is your chance to turn your lived experience of mental health recovery into real impact, supporting others to access the services, tools, and confidence they need to thrive. You'll walk alongside participants, especially from LGBTIQA+ and First Nations communities, helping them build independence, connection, and hope. If you're ready to work in a purpose-driven role that changes lives, this is it.

In this full-time role, you’ll be the first point of contact for new participants. You will manage intake, provide one-on-one support, and connect them with the right services at the right time. You’ll also run group programs, build strong community links, and help create warm, culturally safe pathways into NDIS and other mental health supports. Backed by a supportive team and a strong recovery-focused framework, you’ll help break down barriers and promote lasting change.

You will need:

• Lived Experience

• Minimum Diploma and/or relevant experience in Mental Health or other related
  discipline.

• Minimum of three years’ experience working in mental health or related services. 

• Current valid Driver’s License and the ability to undertake travel for the role

• Current Working with Children Check and NDIS Workers Screening Check

• Right to Work within Australia

• Satisfactory National Police Records Check (less than 12 months old)

• NDIS Worker Orientation Module Certificate

About Us
Wellways connects people, strengthens families, and transforms communities for individuals of all ages experiencing disabilities or challenges to their social and emotional wellbeing. A leading for purpose mental health and disability support organisation operating nationally, our services span mental health, disability and community care and reach more than 7000 people each year!

Working with a diverse range of people, Wellways creates an inclusive community where everyone can imagine and achieve their hopes and potential.

What we offer

• A purpose driven culture where people can thrive, everyone is respected, and differences are valued

• An equitable, diverse, and socially inclusive work environment

• Salary packaging up to $15,899 enables you to spend a portion of your salary before it is taxed to pay for things like rent, mortgage repayments, car leasing

• Meal and Entertainment allowance via salary packaging up to $2,650 per annum

• Receive 17.5% leave loading every time you take annual leave

• Paid parental leave after 12 months of ongoing employment

• Access for you and your family to our Employee Assistance Program

For a confidential discussion about the role, we encourage you to contact Ashton Foster, Team Leader on 0476 558 780

Once you APPLY click here for a copy of the position description

Wellways is committed to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people. 

Successful applicants must undergo a comprehensive screening process prior to their commencement.

If you’d like to know more about our reconciliation commitment, click here  Reconciliation | Wellways 

Job Description Summary

The Psychosocial Support Service (PSS) has been intentionally designed through extensive co-design with participants, families, carers, referrers, and key stakeholders to ensure the delivery of a timely, needs-based, recovery-oriented, and capacity-building service. The model focuses on supporting individuals to achieve their recovery goals, build independence, and successfully transition from the service, including facilitating access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and other ongoing psychosocial supports where appropriate.
Funded by the Gippsland Primary Health Network (GPHN), the Peer Worker plays a pivotal role in providing safe, welcoming, and recovery-oriented peer support to participants entering the Psychosocial Support Service. Drawing on their own lived or living experience of mental health challenges and recovery, the Peer Worker works collaboratively with participants to foster hope, promote self-determination, strengthen community connection, and support individuals to navigate the mental health and broader service system. The role contributes to the delivery of person-centred, trauma-informed, and strengths-based care that aligns with Wellways' recovery philosophy and the objectives of the Psychosocial Support Program.
The service will operate Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm with extended hours as needed to meet community needs.

Wellways’ Psychosocial Support Service provides peer-based services designed to support individuals from LGBTQIA+ Communities with mental health challenges to access:

• Safe, quality mental health supports and to engage in mental health and psychosocial support services.
• Strengthen the capacity of participants to live independently, safely, and productively in their community.
• Strengthen the capacity of participants to form meaningful connections in a supportive environment; and reduce the need for acute care.
• Integration of intake and assessment which include the identification of participants' physical and mental health needs.
• One-to-one psychosocial supports.
• Tailored integrated care-plan jointly developed with participants/case managers/family/carers.
• Individual peer support through peer-workers and wellbeing workers
• Peer-developed and evidence-based group education and support programs (e.g. Healthy Eating and Nutrition) delivered by trained facilitators.
• Warm transition into other support services as needed.

Under the general support and direction of the Team Leader, this role will be responsible for providing the day-to-day peer support and support community connection to the PSS program in the Gippsland Region. In particular, the Peer Workers will be responsible for the following key areas:

• Supporting participants in recovery and overcoming their psychosocial barriers impacting their mental health.
• Provide support and advice to members of the Psychosocial Support team to strengthen responses and connections for people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Supporting referrals to services for people in the LGBTQIA+ community identified as 'hard to engage'.
• Undertaking a needs assessment for people eligible for a community mental health service.
• Ensuring a catchment wide response to demand management and prioritisation for allocation for eligible participants.
• Facilitating referrals and supports for people not eligible for a community mental health service.
• Facilitating better coordination of entry into mental health services.
• Strengthening partnerships and building improved links between various organisations responsible for delivering mental health services.
• Facilitating group activities around capacity building.
• Improving referral pathways that facilitate access to the range of services and supports available to eligible participants.
• Improving housing stability.
• Building connections within the LGBTQIA+ community and with LGBTQIA+ services and organisations.
• Provide connection and support to participants on a wait list.
• Promoting a community-based recovery model to underpin all support services delivered
to people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness with complex needs.

In addition, the Peer Worker will be the first point of call for people who identify at LGBTQIA+ referred at the point of intake and those on a wait list and provide active wait- list management strategies. This role will also be responsible for ensuring all relevant participant details and data are collected and recorded.

Peer Workers will develop and maintain positive relationships with key stakeholders (NDIS and GPHN) and others to ensure the service model and objectives are embedded into the service system, actively promoting the service to key stakeholders.

Culture

We’re passionate about our work, which is enjoyable, challenging and rewarding.All ofourteams work to ensure everyone can imagine and achieve their hopes and potential. We know that people are unique and the experts on their life and are not defined by impairments, diagnosis or labels. We aim to specifically promote safety and inclusivity for LGBTIQ+ and First Nations communities.

How to Apply

Applications Close

27/09/2026