Our Presenters
Rowena Jonas & Gabriel Leeves
A conversation about the evolution of the family carer lived experience workforce: Navigating a continuous change process and keeping the snowball rolling
In this session, Rowena and Gabriel will explore the evolution of the family carer lived experience workforce and the collective efforts driving change across the carer lived experience discipline. They will reflect on their personal journeys of the lived and living experience (LLE) workforce — touching on Gabriel’s experience as a new in career carer peer worker and Rowena’s experience within the LLE workforce as an “emerging” but long-standing field. The session will address past challenges, including the scarcity of roles, lack of structural support, and limited leadership opportunities, and highlight the progress made through hard work, advocacy and collaboration.
Participants will learn about the expansion of roles within the LLE workforce, with a focus on the growing recognition of the need for ongoing training, career pathways, and embedded leadership roles. Gabriel and Rowena will reflect on features of a well-supported workforce that can be a sustainable career choice in peer work.
Rowena has served people living with mental health issues and disability, and their families, in the not-for-profit, community and government services sectors for over 15 years. Rowena currently works as a Senior Peer Advisor for Wellways nationally, and is a family/carer Peer Researcher, providing family/carer peer supervision to workforces across Australia. Rowena served as a lived experience member of the Interim Regional Body of Hume, tasked with setting up regional Mental Health Boards in Victoria, currently on hold. As a Victorian Government Lived Experience Scholarships recipient, Rowena recently completed the Graduate Certificate in Service Design with RMIT, with the intention to model lived experience centred design in health services. Rowena is a devoted advocate for driving legislative and social change to ensure people can exercise their human right to fully participate in communities of their choice.
Gabriel is a Carer Peer Worker and Lived Experience Educator at Alfred Health where he channels his passion for lived experience work into advocating for carers often unseen in mental healthcare systems. As a neurodiverse LGBTQIA+ individual and former young carer, he brings a unique, diverse perspective to his roles, emphasising the importance of carer-specific supports and their impact on the care journey. Gabriel recently presented at TheMHS Conference (2024), exploring the diversity of carer identity, and facilitated interactive sessions at the Lived Experience Symposium (2024). Through his work, he strives to create inclusive spaces that honour the voices and experiences of all carers, and help them find meaningful support.
