
Rafi Armanto
Rafi is a senior peer worker and project officer at Orygen who oversees a team of online peer workers on Orygen’s Moderated Online Social Therapy (MOST) as well as coordinates international student mental health peer work projects for education providers in Victoria, Australia. Within his roles Rafi supervises peer workers, provides input in the development of service delivery models for peer work, delivers workforce training and develops training resources for peer workers. Rafi is trained in intentional peer work principles which ensure that peer work projects are informed by best practice and conducted through the lens of lived experience.
My passion for lived experience within mental health comes from my own experience of help seeking and accessing support. Within the communities that I existed in, mental health concepts were stigmatised and not widely discussed. My diagnoses of mental ill health were met by family and friends with fear and anxiety rather than hope and optimism. By chance I came across peer work which gave meaning to my experiences and gave me an opportunity to be someone that I wished I had when I was seeking help.
I now dedicate my professional life to promoting the importance of peer work and lived experience work within youth mental health contexts. I continue to be interested in this work to ensure that peer work programs and lived experience is implemented thoughtfully within organisations and that the voices of consumers and lived experience workers are represented and respected.