Pamela Lapi

• I currently work in a Family Carer Peer role over 3 teams, Triage, ABC & 12-25 ‘Integrated Adolescent Assertive Team’ Youth Mental Health Unit, helping families and parents through the worst day of their life using Intentional Peer Support Framework, specifically the four principles.
• I work very tightly with a team of Various disciplines such as Psychiatrists, Child Phycologists Occupational Therapists, Social workers, most of who hold caseloads.
• As a team we see clients who have children with various Mental Health & or diagnosis such as ASD, ADHD, behavioural problems & other serious MH & medical issues.
• I sit in on the clinical revues & from there I’m asked to work with family members.
• I use IPS to help grow resilience & inviting growth and change through building connection & learning boundary setting techniques & start to look at what hope looks like moving forward.
• The day in the life in my role is meeting clients by phone & making that connection.
• From there, I talk about Privacy & Consent.
• We usually meet in nature in the gardens or at the beach as I find the elements are very calming & it gets people out of their own environment & creates change.
• We talk about their stories & sometimes we don't talk at all often there is lots of crying.
• I always give people the space and time to build rapport, & wait for them to ask about my role & what it is that I do.
• I explain that I offer hope & help people grow resilience.
• From these meetings I usually get a sense of how I can work with people.
• As all people have different needs however, they all tend to have a current theme which is loss of hope & isolation.
• I help with payments or booking them into Emotion Coaching for’ behavioural issues’ with family members or stress management classes & so on …DSP, Carer Payments & more.
• I also run a Support Group funded by Tandem for a cafe where other families get to meet each other which is something families often ask of me This appears to be very successful.
• I also currently have set up a Certified Yoga Practitioner to run a stress management class for carers, called Breathwork.
• Breathwork involves consciously controlling one's breath to positively influence mental, physical & emotional wellbeing & giving people a tool to regulate their nervous system in times of distress.
• My feedback from families is very positive & they feel heard & supported through the whole process.
• By the time the families leave, they have a sense of hope & understanding that life goes on for themselves in a positive way & have learnt the tools to do so even if the situation is ongoing, they at least feel heard & supported & have some tools to take home on discharge.
• As a part of the Carer Lived Experience Workforce, we all have been helping build and shape the structure of Lived Experience Workforce with our LEW Managers who have been asked to take the feedback & structure back to the Royal Commission as apart of updating what needs to be changed in order to make our jobs work smoother.
• So I'm deeply rooted in the Lived Experience workforce whether it be Family or Peer as we all work together to make a difference.
• As a lived experience mother, and a huge advocate for families navigating the system with myself of now of adult children, I have 20 years Lived experience in eating disorders with my daughter who suffered Dia Bulimia Anorexia, & AOD comorbidity diagnosis & more.
• My Daughter eventually passed away 6 years ago.
• I also have a Grown adult child with Schizophrenia & Psychosis/ BPD & ADHD who is very well & living his best life ‘on a good day ‘so I have a very good understanding of person-centred approach & helping someone find hope & moving with intention ongoing.
• I also have a good understanding of services and how to navigate this as a carer / Consumer who has had significant care/consumer burnout.
• And has managed to turn my life around on a good day.
• And finally I live my life by pure intention & love to teach people how to find the happiness in their day.

• I worked for this company in various SIL Houses providing support for various disabilities ranging from :
• Mental Health
• High Behavior's
• Intellectual disability
• STA clients

I Worked for a recruitment company working in Youth residential homes

Across Melbourne, for teens living in residential care, and providing a structure such as.

. Daily living tasks such as:

. cooking

. Budgeting

. Personal hygiene

whilst encouraging the development

of social skills through mentoring them into adulthood

Providing appropriate medical care if needed & support .

. Respecting the rights , dignity & autonomy of these young people whilst in my care .

• I worked with families providing supervision for families who have needed this by court order, either in their home or out and about, supporting families to see their children.
• I have provided in-house support for families with ill children and suffered their own mental health issues.
• I have provided in-house supervision for children with disabilities.