Media release – Mental Health Council of Tasmania, 18 November 2024
Tasmania’s Lived Experience Training Hub Launches to Bridge Workforce Gap
Tasmania’s Lived Experience Workforce Training Hub (LEx Hub) was officially launched on Monday.
Jointly funded between the Tasmanian Government and Primary Health Tasmania, the LEx Hub brings together the mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol and other drugs sectors, offering budding and existing Lived Experience Workers, organisations and leaders an opportunity to develop essential skills, knowledge and confidence.
The initiative fulfills a key action of the Tasmanian Peer Workforce Development Strategy. The 2019 Strategy highlighted that Tasmania had the smallest number of Lived Experience Workers per capita in Australia.
CEO of the Mental Health Council of Tasmania, Connie Digolis, said she was excited that the LEx Hub was coming online to help address the shortage.
“People with lived experience have a wealth of knowledge and insights that, due mostly to a lack of training and development opportunities in the state, have been largely overlooked until now. The LEx Hub gives people an opportunity to learn how to best harness and apply their experience to help others who are going through some of the same things they have and accessing many of the supports and services that they have,” said Ms Digolis.
Ms Digolis noted the LEx Hub represents the culmination of years of collaborative work between numerous organisations, demonstrating the importance of embedding lived experience across multiple sectors.
Joe Hargreaves, a Vocational Peer Worker with the headspace Work and Study program, shared how his personal experience helps him connect with young people.
“Being able to share my own story and experience with the people I work with helps me build a strong connection. It shows them that they’re not alone in what they’re going through – that others have been through and overcome similar challenges, and that they can too,” said Mr Hargreaves.
“Using my own experience to help others is not only good for the people I work with, but it’s also very personally rewarding and has even contributed to my own recovery journey.”
The LEx Hub will also work with organisations to help them effectively support and embed this vital workforce.
For more information about the LEx Hub and upcoming courses, visit www.lexhub.org.au.
