A day in the life of a Commonwealth Psychosocial Recovery Coach

A day in the life of a Commonwealth Psychosocial Recovery Coach – with Samantha

Ever wondered what a typical day looks like for a CPS Recovery Coach? Well, there’s no such thing as a typical day – in CPS, every day is different! We asked Samantha, a CPS recovery coach, to share with us how this program is partnering with people to support them back to living the life they want to live. Here’s what she had to say.

In your words, what is the CPS program?

CPS is a short-term program for people living with a mental illness – supporting them with a recovery-based framework to achieve their goals.

The program is client-led, ensuring that clients are empowered to be the creator of their own journey and that they can identify their own unique goals. A recovery coach may provide support including practical and informative assistance across various areas of the client’s life, which will become evident in their goals.

The program is community-based, which allows for collaboration with other services, navigation or onward referrals and wrap-around care collaboration if needed.

CPS is a capacity building program, so any activities that help clients to build skills or support their wellbeing can be included in their goal plan.

What is your role?

I am a Psychosocial Recovery Coach, and my role is developing individualised support plans with clients to establish goals and implement recovery-based activities to achieve these goals.

These plans look different for everyone. It could be building healthier habits, linking to therapeutic inventions, applying for government assistance, finding a craft group, re-entering community, seeking a disability support service or finding a health-care provider – the list goes on…

What do you love most about your role in the team?

It’s an extremely diverse team to work in – we all come from a broad range of community-based backgrounds. I love that each of us can approach situations from a fresh new perspective during our cross-team collaboration sessions.

What does a typical outreach day look like?

An outreach day starts off as usual, attending Bathurst office with a cup of coffee! My outreach area is Parkes, Forbes and surrounds. I contact all scheduled clients and then hit the road.

I’ll attend a community centre to conduct a client meeting, and during this session we could attend a crisis housing services and a food relief centre to ensure their needs are met and they’re linked in with specialised homelessness support.

My next client visit might include a trip to the local library to support them to fill in paperwork for a NDIS application, collaborate with their carer and provide education around access requirements.

Then I’ll have lunch – usually at a lovely country café. At this point, I’ll meet with my colleague from Dubbo for a quick planning session.

My final meeting might be with an isolated individual with a goal to re-enter community, and it might involve trying a new activity together in a social setting.

Finally, I’ll finish my case notes, make any phone calls to linked-in services to ensure clients are receiving comprehensive case management across all areas and possibly pop into some local community organisations to build connections.

Then it’s back to my accommodation to round out the day.