Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Over the past 20 years, I have worked in the aged care sector in both clinical and managerial capacities. I am currently an Operations Manager at Eastern Health, which I commenced in 2016. I am known by my colleagues as a driven, pragmatic and dedicated Operations Manager with a proven ability to manage strategic direction in complex healthcare environments, managing diverse teams of clinical and non-clinical professionals, having specialist aged and mental health knowledge, liaising with government stakeholders such as DHHS, managing referrals, restructuring teams, managing resources, and more. Aside from my passion for operations management, older adults and mental health, I have a keen interest in working with the team to identify efficiencies while continually improving the quality of the service and professionally enhancing the skills of the staff. This includes creating a safe and supportive team culture and empowering and inspiring colleagues to reflect value-based qualities throughout their work within the organisation, with key stakeholders and the vulnerable people that we assist. I consider myself to be a broad thinking manager who is approachable, supportive, dynamic and upbeat. If you want to know more about my experience, send me a message and I will get back to you.
Eastern Health is one of Melbourne’s largest metropolitan public health services. As an Operations Manager, I am responsible for managing 65 staff and a significant budget, overseeing clinical and non-clinical staff, including nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians, speech pathologists and administration workers.
As Acting Associate Program Director, I managed approximately 300 staff and a significant budget, oversaw operations of 2 sub-acute inpatient units, managed large community programs including Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS) and the Hospital Admission Reduction Program (HARP), and assisted with issues relating to the site, including implementing changing COVID regulations.
Program Senior Social Worker across the Mental Health Program, Spectrum and Turning Point. This is a clinical mental health program covering all age ranges. The Program professional lead for approx. 90 social workers across all community an inpatient settings.
Aged Persons Mental Health Program works with people over 65 years with acute mental health issues. Program professional lead including inpatient, community, PGNH, graduate program, Carer support Groups. This position was retained between maternity leave years.
The Aged Persons Mental Health Service is part of the Mental Health Program at Eastern Health and support to people over the age of 65 years requiring acute mental health treatment and support. The Access Team included triage for all mental health referrals to APMHS and the Intensive Community Treatment Team (ICTT) which is a hospital subsitution team providing 7 days/week mental health support for people who have acute mental health issues. It also included the Residential Support Program which provided mental health treatment and education for people and staff in residential accommodation. The team also included a day program for people with an mental illness.
Triage Team leader managed all incoming mental health referrals to APMHS. This role also included designing a new triage tool and bench-marking this across the mental health age spectrum. Training a workforce to take on this role and working with the new tool was also part of the identified requirements of the service.