• Fixed term 10 months - / Full Time 38 hours per week

This role is a designated LLE position which requires the person to have Lived - Living Experience (LLE) across Mental Health, Suicidality and Alcohol and Other Drugs use. We welcome applicants that have LLE in one area, two areas or all. This disclosure process will be supported through co-design best practice. Please see ‘support offered’ to apply at the bottom of the application. This role is not open to people whose lived experience comes solely from a carer perspective.

This is a unique collaborative role that will work across both Brisbane South Primary Health Network (BSPHN) and QuIVAA. This newly created role is your opportunity to work with and build a dedicated LLE voice to create a transformational space that centers these perspectives within health system reform and organisational change. 

You will be supporting opportunities for participants to have their voices heard individually and collectively throughout project processes. Including people who identify as having a LLE of mental health, AOD, suicide and carers, internal stakeholders, service partners, peak bodies and other community stakeholders. Your focus will be authentically embedding the lived and living experience BSPHN regional planning, supporting the existing LLE groups.

The position will support activities that align with the outcomes of the co planning sessions and support BSPHN to embed the LLE Engagement Framework across regional planning; ensuring that the policies and procedure support people with LLE to thrive as advocates within health reform. The role will work alongside internal teams and external stakeholders to embed and further strengthen the LLE workforce across the region. This role includes the development and implementation of an adaptive LLE workforce best practice for the Brisbane South region. The future direction of this role is to be informed by the regional planning landscape.

The right person will be a confident and capable facilitator and coproduction designer who is able to work with diverse viewpoints from a LLE dedicated perspectives. This role requires a knowledge of the LLE movement and LLE frameworks and guidelines.

About QuIVVA

QuIVAA is a peer-based organisation which has been advocating for the health and human rights of people who use drugs in Queensland for over 30 years, owned and operated by people who use drugs for people who use drugs. QuIVAA aims to be the amplified voice representing the diversity of people who use drugs, through advocacy aimed at addressing systemic and individual issues affecting people throughout Queensland. Operating through a peer-based harm reduction philosophy, QuIVAA encourages and supports members to be active and have input into the issues that affect them.

About Primary Health Networks (PHN) and Brisbane South PHN 

Brisbane South PHN specialise in person-centred, place-based health system reform that delivers meaningful change and sustainable results. We are partnering to build a health and wellbeing system in which every person in the Brisbane south region, especially those with the greatest need, is supported to live well and experience care that is connected, high quality and easy to access -– our vision is ‘the best possible health and wellbeing for every person in the Brisbane south region’. 

Through our partners and contracted providers, we commission the delivery of services for our region’s most vulnerable people, including those in need of mental health, drug and alcohol and other support services.

A key component of the Working Together Differently Foundation Plan is the development of the LLE Engagement and Workforce Development Project. QuIVAA will employ and offer support to the Lived Living Experience Project Coordinator and Voices of Substance an AOD representative group and will facilitate and support the co-design process for the engagement of lived living experience throughout the regional planning process.

Position Objectives

Preferable Lived Experience

• Understanding the global and historic complexity of LLE workforce development, advocacy roles, structural understanding of stigma and discrimination and how that impacts peers and LLE and informs current health processes.
• Advocating for the values of the LLE movement within a multi-faceted system.
• Understanding, or willingness to learn, how to utilise your personal lived/living experience at a systemic advocacy level.
• Create supportive frameworks of dialogue for the varied ways people relate to their LLE and recognise self-identification as a vital part of support all people with LLE within our communities to self-describe their relationship with drugs & alcohol, mental health and suicide and expect those working alongside to respect that self-identification and language.

Facilitation, Consultancy and delivery

• Facilitate and host a collective of people with diverse voices and experiences to elicit ideas with the focus of change for communities which exist in the margins of society.
• Maintain relationships with LLE communities to inform best practice, especially through existing LLE organisations, workforces, and peak bodies.
• Coordinate the development and embedding of the LLE Best Practice Guide to be applied within the MHSPAOD regional plan.
• Foster a reciprocal relationship between LLE participants, PHN staff and commissioned services. How will role be pivotal in implementing best practice guidelines within the sector. 
• Capacity to report on project deliverables and outcomes to meet funding requirements, workforce develop, grants and research.
• Broad sector knowledge & engagement

Teamwork and communication

• Capacity to work with varied teams, with differing stakes in the project including QuIVAA, SBPHN and the teams of participants with LLE experience.
• This position is required to communicate and report on LLE project deliverables and outcomes to multiple teams working across MHSPAOD. This will include applying co design best practice to illicit feedback and input from sources.
•  You will understand how to honour the self determination of the LLE voice and communicate their voices with authenticity. 

Organisational responsibilities

• Communicate and act in ways that align with the values of QuIVVA, Brisbane South PHN and LLE groups.
• This is the first time this position has been developed across two organisations and will require the successful applicant to be able to take direction from both QuIVAA and BSPHN.  
• Participate in organisational induction training to understand processes and policies.

Essential Skills and knowledge

• Knowledge of the application of project management approaches centering LLE best practice. 
• Capacity to work across various online platforms and in-person settings.
• This role will champion skills and knowledge to avoid peer drift within themselves and the LLE participants. 
• This role will require you to travel occasionally – how you choose to navigate travel requirements will be negotiated during recruitment. 
• Skills or confidence to be assertive in professional settings in order to advocate for the LLE embedment in the BSPHN regional plan. 
• The ability to raise issues and provide and receive feedback