How I can help
My supervision, training and consultancy rest on the knowledge that human rights, co-design and consumer leadership are critical elements to creating services that help rather than harm.
My services
Training
I deliver training based on your organisation’s needs. Topics you may contact us for training include:
Understanding how human rights and mental health laws benefit you, consumers as well as their families and supporters
New and improved approaches to quality and safety
Understanding the macro and micro expressions of power which can impact staff and consumer experiences of your services
Assisting you to transform services through real co-design and co-production.
My broad practice and facilitation experience can make these sessions as general or as applied to your circumstances as you need. This training will be approached from a systems-lens to consider how these mental models fit within broader organisational structures and processes.
Supervision
I can provide consumer supervision to individuals working in designated mental health services, with a particular focus on consumer workers can lead change management through:
Articulating the need for change
Improving human rights standards and practices within services
Taking a systems approach that looks at the key policies, practices, resources, relationships, power dynamics and mental models that can drive service transformation
Understanding and working through the key challenges working in designated consumer roles.
I will work with you to identify whether I am best placed to support your supervision goals and needs, and if necessary, will assist in connecting you with other consumer leaders who have other supervision strengths.
Reviews & Advice
My experience across several human rights, regulatory, community-based and legal agencies, will help me assist you with reviews and advice about your service, as well as the practical steps to ensure your goals are realised.
Some common areas where reviews and advice are sought includes:
Assessing the human rights impacts of current work processes and practices, and their compliance with existing laws and obligations
Undertaking impact assessments of future changes in the legal and regulatory landscape, such as new laws and obligations on services and staff
Developing new ways to address old service-delivery problems, such as improving models of care to be better aligned to consumer needs, reduce repeated problems and push towards human rights-based practice
Ensuring that workplace cultures, practices and procedures are compliant with, and support, mental health service obligations under the industrial awards, anti-discrimination, human rights and occupational health and safety law as it relates to the consumer workforce.
Underpinning all reviews and advice processes are:
Consumer goals and consumer leadership remain at the forefront
Identifying and addressing the role of power in the creation and maintenance of problems
Evidence-informed practice and recommendations
Systems thinking, and
Human rights.
I am also deeply connected to the mental health community – in particular, fellow consumers who have lived experience, as well as, their families and supporters, service providers, legal and regulatory agencies. These connections will help me bring together other experts who can assist with your organisation’s needs.
What People Are Saying
“Simon is professional and knowledgeable, I highly recommend his skills in project management, policy work and codesign and coproduction. Simon also has extensive expertise in the mental health system and brings both a professional and lived experience perspective.”
— Helen Makregiorgos, Manager Independent Mental Health Advocacy
“Simon, you honestly just make it so engaging and easy to understand. I have really struggled learning about rights from people in my other work but I feel like today it just clicked and I think I finally got it because of the context and the time you take to slow things done and allow us to ask questions. Big thank-you. Was great having the break as well didn’t realise I needed it until I stepped away from the computer.”
— Youth advocate, participant in human rights training
“Overrated.”
— Mum.
“IMCL was fortunate to engage Simon to guide our organisation through the process of establishing our first lived experience advisory group.
Simon is really passionate about highlighting the essential role of lived experience expertise in service design and delivery. He shared his deep knowledge of co-design frameworks in a very accessible and practical way, and was very conscious of equipping IMCL staff with the capacity to continue the work beyond his engagement with us.
His familiarity with the legal assistance sector also meant he was able to quickly understand IMCL and our project landscape, and tailor his offering to suit our needs. Simon provided fantastic advice and a plan that we could successfully implement in a tight time frame. Simon is an open communicator, efficient, flexible, and a really lovely person to work with.”
— Molly Williams, Managing Lawyer (Health Justice Partnerships) Inner Melbourne Community Legal
“Simon worked collaboratively with senior representatives from the diverse community legal sector to develop a shared model for integrated community legal services in mental healthcare settings. Simon was effective in ensuring that all voices were considered, and that the model was designed with informed and thoughtful input from consumers with lived experience. The sector appreciated Simon's depth of knowledge and personal and leadership skills in supporting us with this important project.”
— Louisa Gibbs, CEO (Federation of Community Legal Centres)
“Simon helped us with a major report on stigma in workplace injury and illness contexts, and with his help, we were able to take the report up to the next level. His attention to detail and considered review feedback, which leveraged his experience in the mental health realm, gave us reassurance that our recommendations were on target and appropriate. I highly recommend Simon for report writing and strategic review.”
— Dr Tristan Casey, Safety Science Lab (Griffith University)
“Simon is an excellent consultant, researcher and educator. My team has had the pleasure of partnering with two significant evaluations of mental health and wellbeing programs. Simon has shared his significant knowledge of mental health reform, human rights and lived experience expertise and insight generously with the team and contributed significantly to high quality engagement activities and deliverables. Simon's work has enriched the findings and recommendations that will flow from these projects elevating their potential for delivering positive impact across the community.”
— Barbara Dixon, Director (Cube Group Consulting)
Areas of legal and regulatory expertise
Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic)
The Charter protects and promotes the rights of all Victorians. To do so, it creates a range of enforceable obligations on “public authorities”, including many public mental health and community services. Have you set up your service to act compatibly with human rights?
Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic)
The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 protects Victorians against discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation. There is also a “positive duty” for services to eliminate and prevent these harms, while also providing mechanisms for services to lawfully create designated “lived experience” roles. Have you got a plan to adhere to your positive duty ?
Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic)
The Mental Health Act 2014 provides for the treatment of people in public mental health services, including authorising compulsory treatment. A failure to act compatibly with the Act harms consumers, and creates legal risks for services. Have your staff been trained in their obligations?
Responsive and risk-based regulation
Responsive and risk-based regulation are the predominant forms of regulatory oversight applied to mental health and community services. Understanding this from a service and regulator view point is critical to ensuring quality improvement in your services, as well as avoiding harm to consumers as well as their families and supporters.
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