Professional Background

BA (Monash), BSW (Melbourne)

Career Summary

• extensive counselling and social work experience as employee, manager and supervisor
• expertise as trainer, teacher and mediator

 

Staff and Student Counsellor University of Melbourne
Also included experience as trainer and presenter, and co-ordinating the Professional Supervision Unit.

Austudy Social Worker

Austin Medical Centre Senior Clinician/ Team Leader in Palliative Care and Haematology Units, with patients who face progressive, life-threatening illness.

University of Melbourne Social Worker

Dealing with retired staff, both academic and administrative, assisting with areas of financial planning, bereavement, isolation, and later life issues, acquainting clients with useful resources and also linking them with community facilities.

City of Fitzroy (now City of Yarra)
Aged Services Development Officer, Acting Home and Community Care Co-ordinator, Acting Co-ordinator, Children’s and Family Services; Crisis Counsellor.

Mount Royal Hospital, Parkville (now North West Hospital)
Ward social worker: assessment and forming of treatment plans for patients; Day hospital social worker, Deputy Senior Social Worker and, on occasion, acting as Senior Social Worker, in charge of 15 full and part time employees. Also Project Officer: helping to bring the Social Work Department towards accreditation, by compiling and editing a procedure manual, and scripting and directing a training video, Teamwork in Rehabilitation.

Also worked locum positions at After Care Hospital, Collingwood, Rehabilitation Services, Caulfield, St.Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Department of Health and Community Services (Child Protection), Fairfield Hospital, Centrelink, Werribee, Doutta Galla Community Health Service, MacKillop Family Services, Flemington, Detoxification Unit, Epworth Hospital

These positions involved working with people feeling the effects of ageing, injury, disability, psychiatric conditions, technological change and abuse, or having problems in relationships, with loss or grief, cross-cultural, academic or workplace issues. They developed skills in planning, community liaison, counselling, therapy, and assessment.

Publicity and Recruitment Officer, North West Foster Care, Coburg; Publicity and Recruitment Officer, Oz Child, Moorabbin

Liaison with the local media, arranging for publication of articles, participation in community events, working with volunteers in all types of home-based care, fund-raising and, in general, increasing awareness of foster care. It also involved assessing families' suitability as foster parents, guiding them through the selection process, and participating in training.

Also taught courses at TAFE level in Research Skills for Writers; Adult Literacy; Submission Writing; Report Writing for Welfare and Community Services Students, as well as short courses in fund-raising, sponsorship, submission writing and basic writing skills. eg. how to devise a business plan, write company reports and promotional material, and make written and oral presentations.