Volunteering Placement with Vision Psychology
Our volunteer placement is modelled from our masters placements that we currently run for social work masters students (500hrs – around $15,000 per student university fees) and health management masters students (240hrs – $7,500 per student). Real life work placements provide qualification in practice skills that cannot be assessed in a structured learning environment like university. We provide these placements without cost so this can be an ideal opportunity for students who are seeking to improve their CV. Most students seek to gain a reference that states they are experienced working in mental health. Gaining experience in the mental health field is very difficult due to the risk involved with mental health clients and the difficulties that arise from managing their treatment.
Our organisation provides volunteer placements that are 250-500 hours. We feel that the standard set by masters programs is about the right level of training and the experience gained is very valuable once you have completed more than 250 hours. All of our past volunteers that we know of, that have completed our placement/volunteer program have left to paying jobs in healthcare administration, healthcare masters related study programs. Working with us will open the door to working in mental health administration at the private and public hospitals, be advantageous for acceptance into masters programs.
Perhaps it is useful to consider what you would like on your reference? At 250 hours into your placement we will provide you with a reference so you may look for other jobs. Our manager will have been your primary supervisor and will provide you reference.
We hope to be able to state that you have skills in:
- healthcare software systems such as Medtech
- managing communication with mental health clients
- working with a team
- accuracy with data entry
- managing confidentiality, boundaries
- Self-management, reliability and trustworthiness
Completing 500hrs will lead to us being able to state you have a high or very high level of these skills and in addition if you progress quickly in the early stages we may assign you specific projects that will be supervised by our director. For those completing 500 hrs our director will provide the reference and be available to be your referee for all future job applications. The director will provide supervision with you directly in the final half of placement.
During your volunteer placement you will be provided with the opportunity to learn the healthcare administration, and depending on your ability and aptitude the placement will continue. If there is a failure to learn or if volunteer is unable to contribute at a professional level, then the volunteer placement will come to an end.
In order to offer you a position we require that you are:
- We require that you are available for a least 2-4 days a week initially as we find the initial training is complex and if you are unable to commit to 10 or more hours a week it becomes too difficult to learn.
- Availability on different days is important for finding suitable training time slots on the roster. We ideally need for you to provide us with three or more days that you are available to work. We need you continuously available for 12 weeks from commencement; ideally available on weekends and after hours as we are 7 days a week during the hours 8am to 8pm just depending on the demand at each location.
- Have own transport as Loganholme is a purpose designed clinic and easier to train new staff as it is a little less hectic. We have limited seats at each clinic for trainees, so we roster around the available resources.
The positions for volunteer placements are limited and you may send us your CV or call Katalin or Kaitlyn our senior managers for more information.