After coming back from vacation…

[Blackcloud]

I feel like I’m slowly losing touch with reality cause right now and even yesterday I still have no motivation to do my regular routines (except for my usual morning routine though). But now I’ve been getting out of bed at around 10am cause when I was in Korea 10am here in Australia is currently 8am over there.

Ummm and I’m even thinking of wanting to leave this country to live/study/work abroad, since I’ve been living in Australia ever since I was born and I thought maybe moving to another country or so would be a good adjustment to that - because sometimes change is good right? (Actually the main reason why I’m thinking about that is because there’s already a number of things about Australia that I don’t like.) And I would love to experience a new culture and stuff as well 🙂 but I guess who knows when that’s gonna happen depending on where and when I’ll be able to become more financially stable 😅

Hanging in there is hard but guess I just have to keep hanging on… 🤷‍♀️ 

[RiverSeal]

Hey @Blackcloud than you for sharing your plans to live overseas! It sounds really exciting 🙂

I did live overseas for a year but it was also when my mental health decided to show up so I found it really challenging and didn't go how I thought it would. I love the idea of experiencing another culture and having a change from Australia. I'm curious what is it about Australia you would like to get a different experience from? 

Korea sounds like a great place to live, and I love the food!

Take care

RiverSeal 

[Blackcloud]

Hi @RiverSeal its just that when I was in Korea, I’ve found out that the vibes and the atmosphere were more for me than the vibes and atmosphere here in Australia - there’s another number of things in Korea that I like/prefer better than here in Australia in terms of the environment, the people, the low crime rates and the safety-ness to be out at night even when you’re a female. I wouldn’t say I’d like to live in Korea permanently though, but would like to only live there only for language exchange study purposes? The country I was thinking of migrating to (though not sure if that’s really ever gonna happen just because) would be Singapore for various reasons, including the fact that their legal system is strict there, whereas here in Australia the legal system here is pretty weak..

I also did find out that studying abroad would allow you to have better career opportunities? 🤔 idk if that’s always the case or necessarily 100% true..

However again, I do need to make a living in order to migrate to these countries haha which was why I do kinda plan on starting YouTube. I just need to make a time to start editing all the videos for my upcoming vlog series and then upload them to my channel and all. 🙂

another thing that I was also thinking of too is taking a cert 4 of mental health peer work course along with the cert 4 of I.T course I’m currently doing right now. But I do like to think that that thought is likely gonna be temporary. It’s just that I feel like since as someone like myself who has already been a long period of having mental health issues and is still struggling with my mental health, i thought about the thought of talking to others about my lived experience and listening to their stories might at least help gain me a living (as I’m currently on Centrelink lol)? Idk. what do you think? 🤔 

[RiverSeal]

Hey @Blackcloud I am studying the Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Work at the moment. I've been working as a Peer Support Worker for over 3 years and wanted to get the main qualification for the role. I have gotten so much out of supporting others and using my lived experience. I 100% encourage you to look into it as a career. It's very rewarding! Take care RiverSeal 

[Blackcloud]

@RiverSeal ohh I’m lowkey thinking about it! Though I do know that the current university I go to doesn’t accept students studying two different certificates all at the same time, and I initially did plan on continuing with my I.T course full time.

I have found that another university here has Cert IV of Mental Health Peer Work is a free tafe course and was probs thinking of doing that course at that university as well as doing the Cert IV of I.T at my current university at the same time - but then that would mean I would have to drop out a couple of subjects/units from the I.T course and do it part time instead if I wanna balance it between that course and this course I’m doing. Luckily the Cert IV of MH Peer Work course has a part time option as well.

I see that in the course, there’s some placements involved? Like work placements/practical stuff? What sort of stuff do you guys currently do in there basically? I’m actually curious 🙂 I would prefer to communicate with people online instead of face to face as I’m not at all suitable for a face to face customer service role for obvious reasons

[RiverSeal]

Hey @Blackcloud it does sound a lot to do two Cert IVs at the same time. I recently did a short course while doing my Cert IV, and it was really challenging to fit in the classes and assignments.

We do have placement, and I am due to complete it this year as I'm part time with work and TAFE. I will do my placement at SANE which is handy, and it will mean I don't need to take time off work. I did a placement in 2023 and had to shuffle my workdays a bit, but it worked out ok. It was good experience seeing another organisation and doing something different. 

Do you mean what do we do at SANE with Peer Support? I prefer the online peer support worker as I like the style of work being on the phone and computer. I would have found face to face work challenging when I started a few years ago and I had been very isolated and was very self-conscious about what I had been through in my recovery. It's not for everyone though, and I encourage you to look into working online if you feel it suits you.

Take care

RiverSeal 

[Blackcloud]

Hi @RiverSeal 

That makes a lot of sense, and it does sound interesting! I would love to do something like that too.

No, I mean as in like what sort of placements/practical stuff do you and the other classmates do within the Cert IV of Peer Work ? And do you guys get to choose which mental health organisations you choose to do your placements at - whether it’s the face to face one and/or the online one? And do you guys get paid whilst doing placements or not? I’m not very familiar with how placements work as I’ve never done one before. 🤔 

[tyme]

Hey @Blackcloud ,

Good to see you!

You usually don't get paid for placements however, last year, there was talk of allowances for uni students doing nursing, social work or teaching placements. This came about because of placement poverty which students were experiencing while on placement.

As for choosing organisations to work with, usually, you can choose for tafe placements, but uni might be different. I've had both for uni - some courses I was assigned to places, and for some I had to find my own.

[Blackcloud]

@tyme oh that's interesting. if this means that this same thing  regarding the placement poverty won't apply to the peer work placement, then I guess I'll have to pass on it

[tyme]

But you'll still have your centrelink allowance @Blackcloud .

The Peer Work Certificate is about 80 hours placement.