Jobs helping wellbeing

A NEW service aimed at supporting young people with mental ill-health back to work and study has been established at Barwon Health’s Jigsaw Youth Mental Health Drugs and Alcohol Services in Corio.

The delivery partner for the individual placement and support (IPS) service is Barwon

Health, and a launch event was held in Geelong on Friday.

IPS is an evidence-based model of employment and education support for young people, which integrates vocational support services with clinical mental health services.

IPS support worker Brooke Hyland, who is a vocational specialist at Barwon Health, said the program rollout began about two months ago in Geelong.

“Participating in employment and education, it’s those positive impacts helping people with something to look forward to,” Ms Hyland said.

“People do not recover sitting at home staring at a wall.”

Ms Hyland said the program had already achieved great outcomes.

One young client, who was homeless last year, has been placed in a civil construction course at Northern Futures, with the goal to be employed in traffic management.

Another client, who had a traumatic upbringing, has achieved a graduate position with construction company Plan Group.

Ms Hyland said she was eager to connect with businesses to create opportunities.

Professor Eoin Killackey, Orygen’s director of research and head of functional recovery research, said Orygen was delighted to be partnering with RACV to bring the IPS model to young people in the region for the first time.

“Orygen research has demonstrated that IPS services can dramatically improve employment and educational success for young people participating in the program,” he said.

The IPS service is just one program to be delivered as part of a three-year partnership between Orygen and RACV aimed at improving education and employment success for young people suffering mental ill-health.