Meet Caleb – Regional Support Officer (North)

Regional support officer Caleb often draws on his own lived experience when working to find participants the right job or support them in their current positions through our disability employment support services.

Caleb, based at Belconnen in the ACT, joined The Personnel Group two and a half years ago as a customer service assistant after ending a successful career in retail management because of ongoing mental health challenges.

“Before I was working here I was a client here,” Caleb says.

“I had started off really well with employment. I left school and went straight to employment and did really well until I had some physical things going wrong and then obviously that added to the mental health, I actually struggled with mental health my whole life.

For Caleb, making mental illness and disability part of the conversation is an important process in finding the right fit for our participants.

“In this job it’s not about constantly fixing people’s issues, it’s about supporting them to get to a place where they can fix their own issues,” he says.

“If we don’t encourage and support an environment where these things are openly disclosed and talked about the world’s never going to change.”

He is very direct when asked about why he works at The Personnel Group.

“Whenever I’m asked that question I say it’s because I believe in it,” Caleb says.

“I believe in it because it happened to me, I experienced it. My life did change. I was a client. And so now when I sit across from participants I never forget that this works.”

“And, to be honest, I think a lot of my consultancy work is based off my then EC Janelle, who’s now the area manager at Southern Ranges.”

Caleb sees a lot of similarities between himself and many clients.

He recalls one, who had previously been with many different providers, who TPG has been able to help by providing disability employment support through 12 months in completing an employment services program.

“She was very overwhelmed when I informed her she is due to exit as an independent worker,” he says.

“As sad as it is that we don’t see them or speak with them again, I love it when I get to go into the system and pick ‘Independent worker’ as the reason for exiting someone.

“That’s the goal, right? That’s what we’re here for.”