Jessica Payne

Coordinator of the Child Protection Counselling Service

Rockdale Community Health Centre. 

“I’m a social worker by trade. I’ve been in the service for 20 years. I was a clinician for most of that time and I moved into this team leader role for the past 5 or so years.

It's a bit cliched, but the people really inspire me to come to work every day. Both the clients and the families we work with as well as the counsellors on the team. I have a team of really passionate and committed clinicians that work with families, and it’s a real privilege to see that work.

It’s hard to come to a service when you’ve got child protection involved, and the parents we work with love their kids and they want to be the best mum’s and dad’s they can be, so I think it’s really brave to say, ‘actually I need help and support’ and be open to the process. To see them make significant changes in their lives and their kids are safer is lovely to witness.

We were very fortunate recently to win the SESLHD Allied Health Team of the Year award and it was nice for the team to be acknowledged for the work that they do. This kind of work isn’t often recognised or known about much, and as a team we work hard to support each other and to provide a really important service to the families that we work with.”