{"id":3111,"date":"2024-03-15T10:50:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T00:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/uncategorized\/paul-justice"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:22:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T01:22:36","slug":"paul-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/news\/paul-justice","title":{"rendered":"Staff Profile: Paul Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staff Profile: Paul Justice<\/h1>\n
\"Paul

Paul Justice is part of the Metro North Mental Health Peer workforce<\/p><\/div>\n

Paul Justice is part of the Metro North Mental Health Peer workforce, working as a Peer Assistant in DIR Recovery Support. Paul has many years\u2019 experience as a peer support worker and consumer representative in government and community organisations.<\/h4>\n

Peer workers are staff who have a lived experience of mental health services or have been a carer of someone who has accessed mental health services. They draw on their lived experience of mental or emotional health challenges, service use and recovery\/healing to connect supportively with people receiving care in Metro North Mental Health.<\/p>\n

Paul has a lived experience of a mental health condition diagnosis and of being in mental health distress and suicidal crisis. He also has a lived experience of disability, living with a musculoskeletal disorder and neurodivergence.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s lived experience in mental health means that he can relate to people accessing mental health services as he has walked a similar pathway.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeer workers have a unique ability to reduce stigma around mental health, breaking down barriers and improving people\u2019s trust of the hospital and health services in their community,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI provide support to people by listening to their stories, understanding their journey and what it is like to walk a day in their life. I also help identify barriers they encounter and any issues with accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, peer workers also acknowledge the resilience of those with mental health challenges provide them with a space for hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul has recently been involved in the development of the Metro North Disability Service Action Plan as a member of the Steering Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was empowering to be connected to a group of people in the Steering Committee using their lived experience as consumers and carer\/families advocating for accessibility and equality. The Committee provided a voice for change and created pathways for building inclusion, accessibility, diversity and connections,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope in the future there are more co-design opportunities for those with lived experience. Collaborations between those with lived experience, consumers, carers and staff members can really make a difference in providing better health care services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul has advice on how those with neurodiversity can be better supported in the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the time to get to know people that are neurodivergent and appreciate their strengths. Neurodiverse people have different sensory issues and learning styles and require patience and understanding. A few reasonable adjustments can make a difference to their working environment and improve workplace engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Justice is part of the Metro North Mental Health Peer workforce, working as a Peer Assistant in DIR Recovery Support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3133,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions\/3133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}