MEGAN TESTRO
Melbourne,VIC
Summary
Dynamic Social Worker with a collaborative style and culturally sensitive mindset. Demonstrated ability to work with clients from a strengths-based approach to implement recovery focused interventions. Skilled in client case management, crisis interventions and establishing a professional therapeutic relationship. Keen to contribute to a team-driven environment that promotes social justice. Well-developed practical and theoretical understanding of the intersectional impacts of inequality, with a passion for ongoing professional development.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
Work History
Case Manager - Continuing Care Service
Austin Health Heidelberg
02.2024 - Current
- Experience in the provision of assessment, discipline specific intervention and case management services to consumers with a serious mental illness and complex needs and their carers within a recovery framework
- Established rapport and professional therapeutic relationship through routine / consistency / advocacy and promotion of the client's abilities, further informed through continual mental state examinations, risk assessments, case reviews
- Coordinated daily succinct objective progress case notes to ensure client's consistent care across the organisation / service sector and time frames
- Collaborated with the multidisciplinary team to arrange interventions regarding clients of concern at weekly clinical review meetings
Social Worker – Acute Psychiatric Unit
Austin Health Heidelberg
02.2023 - 01.2024
- Supported clients with complex mental health needs in an acute in-patient setting as part of a multi-disciplinary team
- Conducted admission assessments, identified psychosocial risks, crisis interventions and developed individualized treatment plans to manage admission and support with discharge planning
- Advocated with local support services for ongoing community-based safety planning and crisis management
- Extended my role to support clients and/or family members identified as experiencing Family Violence, through advocacy, education and by arranging meetings at the local Orange Door FV services – to assist safety planning and ongoing community connection
Information and Support Worker
Women's Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE), Melbourne
02.2022 - 12.2022
- Provided direct support, information, and referrals for women, non-binary and gender diverse people, through a strengths-based approach, underpinned by an intersectional feminist framework
- Demonstrated the ability to be multi-skilled across the service delivery team, in collaborative and leadership roles
- Facilitated face to face support, telephone support and email chat with a focus on building rapport through empathetic listening and validation, acknowledged the intersectional structural / systemic barriers
Student Placement
Mental Health Northern Community Care Units, Preston
08.2021 - 12.2021
- Developed a person-centred, non-intrusive and collaborative style with the ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, with individuals and groups, demonstrated through concise case notes
- Collaborated to facilitate and co-facilitate group activities to support the development of client's social skills as part of their individual recovery plan
- Reconciled critical social work theories through regular supervision sessions
Student Placement
Hospital Social Work Northern Health, Epping
09.2019 - 12.2019
- Negotiated and advocated for clients' human rights
- Negotiated safety issues in line with professional obligations to hospital protocols and accountabilities
- Developed skills in psychosocial assessments, incorporating social work theories and formulating intervention plans, with the assistance of the supervisor and team
- Managed independent case studies from initial assessment of inpatient to discharge plans
- Experience of electronic systems to accurately document and communicate
Education
Bachelor of Human Services and Master of Social Work -
La Trobe University
01.2021
Skills
- Case management
- Problem-solving
- Active listening
- Organization and multitasking
- Documentation and reporting
- Client advocacy
- Critical thinking
Affiliations
- Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
- Women's Health in the North (WHIN)
ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
- Working with Children Check -2371367A-01
- Victorian Car Drivers License -048692591
- Certificate III in Children's Services - OZ Child
Training
- Dual diagnosis of Mental Illness and Substance use / Motivational Interviewing / Working together with Families, Carers & Supporters / Medications in Mental Health - Centre for Mental Health Learning (2023-2024)
- Borderline Personal Disorder Training – Spectrum (2024)
- Family Violence Training / Aggression Management Training Austin Health (2023 / 2024)
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training - Living Works Education (May 2022)
- Foundations for Building Trauma Awareness - Blue Knot Foundation (June 2022)
- MARAM (Multi Agency Risk Assessment and Management) Comprehensive Risk Assessment & Management Module – Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRC - January 2021)
- Responding to Sexual Assault one-day workshop - Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA – August 2019)
Timeline
Case Manager - Continuing Care Service
Austin Health Heidelberg
02.2024 - Current
Social Worker – Acute Psychiatric Unit
Austin Health Heidelberg
02.2023 - 01.2024
Information and Support Worker
Women's Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE), Melbourne
02.2022 - 12.2022
Student Placement
Mental Health Northern Community Care Units, Preston
08.2021 - 12.2021
Student Placement
Hospital Social Work Northern Health, Epping
09.2019 - 12.2019
Bachelor of Human Services and Master of Social Work -
La Trobe University
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