Pillars of strength for a community in need

Sinisia Koloto is proud of what she has achieved. Photo / Graeme Sedal

The course

This one-year, full-time course is the baseline qualification for mental health support workers in community mental health agencies.

The programme consists of five courses, including bicultural awareness, discrimination, inclusion and legislation, working with families from diverse cultures and understanding recovery and community networks.

Students are in the classroom one day per week, spending the other four days focused on self-directed learning, tutorials and 335 hours of work experience, paid or unpaid. MIT provides some assistance in obtaining volunteer placements for those students not already working within mental health.

Students are assisted through tutorials, practicum supervision and professional supervision. Assessment methods include a variety of written and practical oral presentations within the classroom and mental health settings. A minimum of 80 per cent attendance at all courses is required.

Up to 30 students are accepted per intake. Students come from all walks of life and ethnicities, ranging in age from late teens to early 60s.

The graduate

Sinisia Koloto
* Mental health support worker in Residential Rehabilitation Services at Pathways Health Ltd
* Graduated in April 2007 and now doing the national diploma

My role involves helping people whose lives are adversely affected by mental illness with their everyday living. As a support worker I support people to make their own sense of their experiences and to learn what they can to do to minimise the adverse effects of these experiences on their everyday living.

We facilitate social connection for the person within their family and community and encourage them to regain or maintain their life journey through education, employment and community activities.

I really like seeing people who experience mental illness make good progress through the choices they make. It is very rewarding to play a part in helping with that progress.

Before I started at Pathways I did various jobs as well as being the main caregiver for both my parents until they passed away. I began at Pathways in a casual role in 2005, also enrolling in the national certificate to develop more of an understanding about mental health. I was lucky to get government financial support without which study would have been a major struggle. My employer was also very encouraging and while doing the certificate I gained a full-time position.