Peer support worker, consumer consultant, and VMIAC member Jess Ferguson-McLellan is one of 28 students in VMIAC’s groundbreaking pilot training program, Consumer Leading in Governance.
At the time, the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health was calling for more lived experience leadership in service delivery and boards.
CLIG was designed to build capacity in the consumer workforce and meet that demand.
For Jess, the training helped her maintain roots while working in a significant clinical environment.
“In bigger organisations with smaller lived experience workforces, we’re often pulled into service design spaces or asked to contribute the lived experience perspective to mainstream projects.
“This training really helped me refine my thinking and strategically advocate for lived experience in a clinical setting.”
Over four days, participants took part in eight workshops covering:
- The Consumer Perspective
- Indigenous governance
- Board roles and responsibilities
- Finance for board members
- Board room dynamics
- Strategic planning for boards
- Risk Management
- Rights framework and outcomes
Jess said learning about Indigenous boards opened her eyes to various lenses and ways of operating.
“When it comes to peer spaces, we can learn from others… queer spaces, Indigenous spaces.”
Another workshop that stood out to Jess was risk management.
Jess said she was commonly involved in conversations about risk in her current workplace and was aware of how clinicians and consumers weigh it.
“I enjoyed thinking about risk and I know this will help me influence conversations in a non-lived experience designated space.”
Jess is currently on placement with VMIAC’s human rights subcommittee, where she will attend at least three meetings.
It’s her first exposure to an entirely lived experience workforce.
“It’s a real difference from someone who has only been in a non-consumer-designated space.”
The pilot CLIG program is near completion. To keep up with our LLEW training opportunities, visit our consumer workforce training webpage.