For some of us, it takes a little while to figure out just what our pathway in life will be, what we want to do for work, what our career ambitions are.
For Hayley Harrison, that pathway has been clear since she was little girl.
“I always knew I wanted to do something in health,” she said. “I wanted to be a doctor. I knew I wanted to help Aboriginal people.”
Like many on our team, Hayley spent a lot of her childhood in and around GEGAC, and has strong and happy memories of that time.
“There used to be huts out the back here,” she remembered. “The kids loved it. And where the medical building is now was all paddock and trees. All the kids would just be running around…”
Her Nan was part of the Elders group that would meet at the Elders/HACC Lounge, and her sister, Kylie, worked there too.
“I just liked following her and my nan around,” Hayley said.
These early memories impressed on a young Hayley that GEGAC was a place where community came together to support each other, and that it was a place of yarning and healing.
That stayed with her. But it wasn’t until she got a little bit older and could make more sense of the things she saw around her, that her future direction became clear.
“I grew up knowing how bad drugs were and how easy it was to just try it one time and then be addicted,” Hayley said.
“I saw what it does to families, to our community. And then that just creates more problems for the next generation coming up, it’s a cycle.”
“I thought, there’s got to be a way to break that cycle. You don’t always have to choose drugs or alcohol to socialise with friends or family.”
And so, when Hayley turned 18 she made the big decision to move away from her home to the big smoke, Melbourne.
Hayley wasted no time in taking the first steps in her professional journey, working in community engagement and community support roles with Djirra in Melbourne, an organization that helps Aboriginal women and children impacted by family violence.
Aware of the need to grow her professional qualifications, Hayley also completed a Cert IV in Mental Health through the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).
In those roles with Djirra, Hayley learned a lesson that many of us don’t properly understand until we are much older – there is enormous power in the simple act of listening.
“A lot of the women I would meet, they just wanted someone to sit with them and hear their stories,” she said. “They don’t want you to feel sorry for them. They just want to tell you not to do what they did, and learn from their mistakes. Like an Aunty figure.”
“Being able to be that person that would listen to them – that they could trust – it made me feel very proud.”
Then Hayley’s pop passed away, and her world turned.
Spending more time back home during such a sad time reminded her of the importance of family and community.
“Coming back here and being with everyone, I knew I wanted to be surrounded by family,” she said. “I wanted to work in the community I grew up in.”
GEGAC knew Hayley would be a terrific asset to the organisation and the community, and we were stoked to be able to offer her a role as the Indigenous Dual Diagnosis Peer Support Worker in our Tanderra Wellbeing Service.
(“Dual Diagnosis” is just the clinical term for when someone has one or more diagnosed mental health problems at the same time as problematic drug and alcohol use.)
Much like her work at Djirra, Hayley’s new role at GEGAC is about being available for mob that might need support, and giving them the space to share their stories and talk about where they are at.
“Peer support means just that, being a support for someone, whatever that looks like for them,” she said. “One of my clients has a kid, but because they don’t have a car it’s hard for them to get out of the house and go and do things. So I pick them up each week and we’ll go to the park. The kid can play at the playground, and we just talk.”
“Another lady was talking about wanting to go to the gym. I said to her ‘I’ve never been to the gym, let’s go together.’”
“When someone is struggling with mental health, often they don’t want to get out of bed, and they isolate themselves. So even just that step of going over to their house and getting them out of bed and outside can make a big difference.”
The one simple message Hayley has for anyone thinking they might want to have a yarn with someone about their struggles with alcohol or drugs is this:
“Don’t be shamed. There’s no shame in it. No shame.”
“You don’t need to know what you want. If you know you just want to talk to someone, that’s enough. Just come and see me and we’ll sort something out for you.”
If you’re ready to reach out to Hayley and the Tanderra crew, it’s easy, free and confidential.
All the contact is info is here: https://gegac.org.au/tanderra/, or you can use the simple form below.
Or you can call (03) 5152 0887 and be put straight through to Tanderra.