Tanderra Community Nurse Kelly Cameron with her Tanderra teammate Hayley Harrison.
Sliding doors.
That single moment when you choose one pathway over another, and your whole life changes forever.
Kelly Cameron has had a sliding doors moment in her life.
As a young woman with a young son, Kelly had moved from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne to Paynesville, to be closer to her parents.
She had worked in a variety of admin roles, but had not yet found any great passion or interest that motivated her to follow a particular career or pathway.
All that changed when her Dad, who had been a nurse for many years at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, suggested they both apply to be Ambulance Community Officers (ACO).
So they did.
And after a short period of intense training, Kelly was on the job, riding around in an ambulance with a paramedic and responding to real life emergencies.
“An Ambulance Community Officer basically supports the paramedic as they attend calls,” Kelly said. “In country areas particularly, that could be anything. Your job is to provide another set of hands and to help as best you can, as is safe and appropriate.”
Her sliding door had opened.
“The ACO job changed everything for me,” she says. “I was helping people. I found that I really liked working in the community, providing care for people.”
“That feeling of community was something I hadn’t experienced before, and right away I knew this was the kind of thing I wanted to do.”
That role was just the beginning for Kelly.
Through ongoing education and training, and her eagerness to learn and try new things, Kelly went on to nursing roles at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service.
That included stints in the chaotic, high pressure environment of the Emergency Department, as well as on Flanagan Ward, where she cared for people undergoing rehabilitation, including alcohol and drug withdrawal.
It was there she discovered where her passion really lay.
“It was talking to people, listening to people, hearing their stories,” Kelly says.
“On the ward, I was always interested to know what it was that had brought that person to the point they were at. There’s always a backstory. If you can listen to a person, and learn something about who they really are and what is important to them in their life, you can help them rediscover that part of themselves.”
Kelly describes spending hours with patients, through long sleepless nights or struggling through withdrawal and insomnia, just sitting with them, often in silence.
“I remember one girl who was having a panic attack,” Kelly recalls. “We literally just sat on the floor for as long as it took for it to pass. Later, she told me how much that support meant to her, just being there, not having to say anything. That gave me a huge sense of fulfillment.”
That natural sense of compassion and empathy, and an eagerness to listen to people tell their stories, makes Kelly a terrific addition to the GEGAC team as our new Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Community Nurse.
As our AOD Community Nurse Kelly’s role will be to meet with community members who are keen to get help with issues they might be having with drugs or alcohol, to listen to the struggles they are facing, and help them find a way forward.
“Everyone is different,” Kelly says. “So the way we support people that come to us depends what the individual needs are.”
Kelly can accompany clients to their GP appointments and support them in conversations with the GP, or connect them with GEGAC’s Aboriginal Health Team.
“Sometimes it might be providing bridging support while we wait for a detox bed to become available, it might be harm minimisation… really what it’s about is connecting with people that come to us, listening to them so we can understand what they need and how to help them.”
If you’d like to yarn with someone about drugs, alcohol or mental health challenges, or any struggles you’re having, reach out to our Tanderra crew.
It’s free, confidential, and easy to do.
No shame, no judgement.
Got to gegac.org.au/tanderra, give them a call direct on 5152 0887, or email tanderra.referrals@gegac.org.au
It’s a simple first step that will start the ball rolling in the right direction.