Sarah Perks

Experience

• 

  Windana Drug & Alcohol Recovery Inc.

  Mar 2011 - Oct 2017

  Outreach AOD family and parenting case worker
• 

  Family Contact Service

  Feb 2018 - May 2020

  Professional Contact Supervisor, Report Writer and Editor
• 

  Self-employed

  Nov 2019 - now

  Youth Development Specialist, Anti Oppressive collaborative Family Work

  Therapeutic, scaffolded developmental skills development and counselling with teenagers and young adults who have diagnoses of autism, intellectual disabilities, ADHD and trauma.

• 

  VincentCare Victoria

  Jul 2020 - Sept 2020

  Community Support Worker

  Locum social work role

• 

  Windermere Child and Family Services

  Mar 2021 - Jun 2021

  Family Violence Family Work & Case Management Locum

  One of the most inspiring locum roles! I cannot speak highly enough of the genuine, passionate and dedicated team, team leader and manager!

• 

  Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre

  Jul 2021 - Jan 2022

  Crisis Support and Resouce Worker
• 

  Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)

  Sept 2021 - Feb 2022

  Senior Family Services Case Manager

  Engage with a cultural lens, be it through assertive outreach or taking time to develop trusting relationships to collaborate with families where there are differing complex systemic, social, personal and relational disadvantages, often high levels of needs and risks, requiring specialist services. Maintain connectedness with families, recognise strengths and promote culture with each family member and by extension pride in their deadly Aboriginal identity.Maintain the recognition, rights and truth within Aboriginal culture, advocate for cultural safety and provide cultural resources to maximise connectedness, and opportunities to participate in Community events and activities to strengthen cultural connections. Recognise each family’s journey will be their own, non linear and healing experience. Adjust service intensity to work with their pace as needed, assess risks and needs to prioritise, and create an honest and earnest open manner of working with a family so as to sustain relationships during periods of immense stress, risks and difficulties. Mentor case workers, creatively identify and engage with other ACCO’s and specialist services. Conduct ongoing assessments of safety, identifying potential for harm and for protective factors to build upon. Confidently advocate and contribute to anti oppressive practices, recognising the ongoing effects of colonisation and racism. Mentor and support all team members. Creativity engage in a whole of service organisation approach, engaging with the breadth of programs, services and rich cultural knowledge within teams, working in a deeply respectful relational manner with Elders and with all. Show less

• 

  The Hader Clinic

  Dec 2022 - Feb 2023

  Recovery Oriented Family Clinician

  Addiction Recovery Specialist Family Clinician.Inclusive to the holistic alcohol and drug rehabilitation for each individual; the evidence for the inclusion of family members within the journey of recovery is sound. The role of families and carers is also highlighted in The Victorian Framework for recovery-oriented practice (www.health.Vic.gov.au). The specialist areas of addiction treatment and family inclusive practice are both areas of practice for which I have the greatest passion to work within, and where I continue my own research to ensure the provision of best practice. Recovery is possible, as is the most professional care. Show less