NDIS Workforce Development (2018)

Victoria’s mental health workforce is currently undergoing significant change and transformation. With funding from the Victorian Government’s Transition Support Package, Mental Health Victoria is supporting providers to understand the implications of the change and prepare for how to support their workforce in the new NDIS environment.

Community Mental Health Workforce Training and Development Analysis

The Community Mental Health Workforce Training and Development Analysis was conducted in 2016-17 to explore and make recommendations around the training and development needs of the mental health workforce in Victoria resulting from the rollout of the NDIS. In particular the report focuses on the impact on the MHCSS workforce making the transition to NDIS, and draws a picture of the newly emerging workforce providing disability supports to people with psychosocial disability.

2018 Foundations in MH Recovery-Oriented Practice for NDIS Support Workers

The Training and Development Analysis indicated that professional development and support of the psychosocial disability workforce in an NDIS environment was of key concern to most (if not all) mental health providers. In response, Mental Health Victoria has developed a pilot for an online resource and associated professional development model to give providers a framework and resource to support frontline workers develop knowledge and skills in recovery-oriented practice.

The model and resource includes a number of components including:

• Formal learning (through an online mobile platform and additional reading and resources)
• Informal learning (through activities to support learners’ self-reflection and application of the learning in their workplace
• Coaching and mentoring (through activities to support group learning in team meetings and supervision)

The project aims to:

• Upskill NDIS support workers with foundational knowledge and skills in recovery-oriented practice essential to establishing relationships with participants experiencing psychosocial disability
• Increase support workers’ capability to encourage and support the choice and control of participants experiencing psychosocial disability
• Assist workers to understand how aspects of recovery-oriented practice can be applied to disability support work when working with participants experiencing psychosocial disability
• Provide guidance to frontline managers directly supervising NDIS Support Workers, on how to support the learning outcomes for workers engaged in this learning program