Emily’s story: seeing young people’s potential

Emily Baisman never believed she’d make it to university. “I had really severe mental health for a long time,” she says. “I had to drop out of school because of it, and then because of issues at home I left home when I was 16.”

Emily experienced homelessness and struggled with substance use before meeting a drug and alcohol worker who changed her trajectory. “I think now how important it was that my drug and alcohol worker at that time really believed in me, because at the time no one really did, I definitely didn’t,” she says.

“That really helped me get to where I am today, and I like taking that into my work and seeing people for what they can be.”

With her worker’s encouragement, Emily began studying and found work in community services while gradually completing her Bachelor of Social Work. “I finished my degree a couple of years ago and then got a job at headspace Frankston,” she says. “I was like, this is my dream job.”

In her current role with the BounceBack team at headspace Frankston, Emily provides counselling and case management for young people with complex needs. “It might be a few different diagnoses and some trouble at home, or it might be drug and alcohol issues, or it might be domestic violence happening at home,” she explains.

The program’s flexibility allows her to meet young people where they are. “I like to have them in the driver’s seat,” she says. She recently worked with a young person who had cycled through the out-of-home care system. “He’d just been let down by worker after worker, and he really didn’t want a bar of it,” she recalls. 

Emily took an unconventional approach, letting him control the dynamic. “I said ‘This is my role, these are my boundaries, but other than that I’m here to be what you need me to be’.” Over several months, their relationship transformed. 

“He asked to increase his appointments,” she says. “He was opening up and telling me things about his life and wanting to change his thinking. At first he was like, ‘I’m really cold’, but then after a while he was like ‘no, I actually really care about people’.” From there, they began discussing his life aspirations.

“I think we all need a purpose,” she says. “And it can be something really, really tiny as well.”

When Emily first entered community services, lived experience wasn’t as valued. “They wouldn’t want to hire people who had lived experience because they thought they would cause trouble in the workplace,” she explains. By contrast, headspace appreciates what workers with lived experience contribute. “You’re really respected and valued, and the managers put staff wellbeing first,” she says. “It’s a really safe place.”