Jess Ferguson-McLellan

About me

My name is Jess. I am a consumer peer worker and have worked from a consumer perspective inside of a clinical setting for 5 years. I work as a peer support worker, in co-design, education and service design. I have worked in an acute clinical setting for most of my career, but have also worked externally in co-design.

I am an artist and advocate in the Geelong region, with strong ties to community and a fierce determination to be part of change. In my downtime I love attending local gigs and art shows, political events and rallies. I also love spending time at home with my family, creating and gaming.

I value being human, transparency and connection.

My experience

I have worked as a consumer peer worker in various capacities over my 5 years within consumer working space.

I am a part of the peer personality program, in which I use my lived experience of receiving a BPD diagnosis, service use and stigma to walk alongside others who are accessing acute and community services at Barwon Health.

I have worked within the service to design peer support spaces and to operationalise both peer groups and individual peer support.

I have designed and facilitate education sessions for staff in non-designated LE roles who are working with people who have received a diagnosis of BPD/CPTSD. This work includes demystifying BPD and challenging stigma

I have worked with the Gordon Tafe Geelong to design micro-credentials about inclusive practice

I have worked in co-design facilitating the development of the lived experience residential service, the design of the tendering process for the lived experience peak bodies and most recently for the reduction of the use of community treatment orders for people from diverse communities.

I have spoken publicly.

My current role/work

Senior consumer peer support worker

My training

IPS
Consumer Perspective Supervision training
Consumers leading in governance training

My approach to supervision

I understand myself to provide space, connection and relationship from which a shared sense of consumer perspective work emerges. As a person who has worked across several different areas of consumer work I hope to provide reflective/reflexive spaces where consumer workers can actively define their own practice and to orient themselves within consumer perspective work. I love networking, so I hope to connect people to broader consumer community and resources from which they can continue to grow and feel connected to the larger consumer space.