Program overview 

Applications are now open for the VHA’s Mental Health Mentoring Program in 2024! The program offers practical training skill development in mentoring and coaching. It will equip participants to provide mentoring and coaching to peers and junior staff within the workplace, as well as build ongoing supportive peer coaching networks.  

The program will be delivered in two stages during 2024, with each stage offering an online or in-person option.  

The program consists of four full days of learning sessions (or eight half days online), informal peer group sessions, and access to an online community. 

2024 program dates 

Stage	February to April 2024			April to June 2024
Start week	5 February 2024	5 February 2024	5 February 2024	15 April 2024	15 April 2024	15 April 2024
Delivery	Online	Online	In-person	Online	Online	In-person
Frequency /length	Weekly for 10 weeks	Weekly for 10 weeks	Weekly for 6 weeks	Weekly for 10 weeks	Weekly for 10 weeks	Fortnightly for 6 weeks

Who is eligible? 

Staff employed in Local and Area Mental Health Services, working in team leader and program manager roles.   

How to apply 

Expressions of Interest are open, and cohorts will be filled on a first come basis. Register your interest here.  

Program content 

This program has been designed to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to undertake mentoring and coaching within their roles as team leaders and managers in mental health and wellbeing services. 

It is anticipated that by the end of this program, participants will have the skills and knowledge to provide coaching and mentoring to both peers and more junior staff within their service setting, and to have a well-established peer coaching practice in place. 

The program will be delivered as four full days face to face, and eight half days online, in line with best practice for facilitation. 

The program is designed to offer participants an opportunity to reflect on mentoring and coaching concepts and how they fit within their current work practice, and most importantly, opportunities to practice and build their skills in coaching and consider how these will be implemented in their workplace. 

Program content will include: 

• Introduction to mentoring including frameworks, processes, benefits, and roles. 
• Introduction and deep dive into coaching as an approach to use within the mentoring relationship 
• Understanding the similarities and differences between line management, clinical supervision, coaching and mentoring – and when to use them. 
• Engaging in peer coaching sessions to develop and refine coaching skills. 
• Observation of live coaching demonstrations to develop and refine coaching skills. 
• Exploration of individual, team and organisational factors that impact on the successful implementation of coaching and mentoring in the workplace. This will include things such as quality and safety and governance issues, working with power dynamics, consideration of diversity, and understanding the considerations for working with lived experience within the coaching and mentoring relationship. 

Program design and facilitator 

Swagata Bapat is a consultant, coach and facilitator with 30 years’ experience working in the mental health and community sectors in clinical, training and development, and leadership roles. She brings a wealth of learning and development and facilitation experience, as well as strong mental health sector knowledge to her work as a consultant. 

As a consultant, Swagata has facilitated workshops and undertaken projects for several national mental health organisations and government bodies including Headspace national, SANE Australia, the National Mental Health Commission, Wellways Australia, the Mental health and Wellbeing Division at the Victorian Department of Health, and Mental Health Australia.  

Swagata is driven by a strong commitment to promoting mental health and wellbeing in workplaces and communities and facilitating people and organisations to achieve their optimum potential. She is known for her ability to bring a warm, collaborative, and focussed approach to her facilitation and project work. 

Swagata holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (OT), Master of Public Health, Graduate Certificate in Developmental Child Psychiatry, and a Certificate 4 in Workforce planning. She is an Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL) certified Organisational Coach and is accredited in the Human Synergistics Lifestyles Inventory tool (LSI) and Group Styles inventory (GSI). 

Contact 

For further information, please contact vha@vha.org.au 

This initiative is funded by a grant from the Victorian Department of Health