After your intro call, the following eFriend sessions (from 1-15) will be with the same person and are usually less structured. These sessions are a safe and flexible space. This might include venting about your week, workshopping through a particular problem together, or just having a casual conversation to connect. 

At the end of each call your peer will book you in for the next session or if you are unsure, can send you an email with their availabilities. These calls are usually taken weekly or fortnightly but can be at any convenient time for you (with at least a week gap in between). If you miss a call or there has been a gap since your last call, you can email us at efriend@icla.org.au to set up a new call booking!

You will receive an email when the booking is made and an email and text notification 24 hours prior to your booked call. If you are unable to make this call, you can respond to the booking email letting us know you would like to cancel/reschedule.

Phone calls may come from a private number. If you miss our first call, don’t worry! We will call back a second and third time, waiting a couple of minutes in between.

If you have booked in for a video session, please ensure that you have Zoom installed on your device ahead of time (click here to download). You will have been sent a link and a password to your email address, which you can use to enter the call. Please leave a couple of minutes beforehand to get your device and app ready, just in case of any unexpected updates or restarts!

At eFriend, our key purpose is to provide peer support, which aims to create an equal relationship. While we want to help our participants get access to the services they need, we also don’t want to set ourselves up as the “experts” in what is right for you and may not have the knowledge of what the most useful services might be in your area.

Your peer may share a service they know about that has supported them, but we do not provide direct referrals to other services. This means we cannot set up meetings or pass your details on to other services. However, we do have a directory of services on our main eFriend page if you scroll to the bottom, which may have services that can support you. We can also talk you through different pathways to find the right services or talk through what the barriers are for you.

Towards the end of your intro call, if the eFriend program is suitable for you, your peer will ask if you have any specific preferences regarding who you speak to. We can work to accommodate you as best we can (according to available staff and scheduling) but being a small team, this is not always possible. 

All our peers have various lived experiences of mental struggle. We believe that experiences rarely match perfectly and do not need to be identical to have meaningful, supportive conversations. We find that peers and participants often discover surprising points of commonality over their sessions together, even if they aren’t immediately obvious. Sometimes a slightly different perspective can also be helpful in uncovering options you haven’t been exposed to before.

While we try to match each person with one peer for the duration of their eFriend journey (to develop a relationship and avoid repeating your story) we understand that sometimes people simply don’t ‘click’. These calls are for you and if at any point you feel that you could benefit from speaking with a different eFriend peer, let your peer know or can email efriend@icla.org.au and we will organise to book you with another peer worker.

At eFriend, we understand that trauma is part of the stories of many people who experience mental health struggles or other difficulties in life. It is never our intention to remove topics surrounding trauma entirely. You can share your experiences and talk about the impact it has left on you however, in order to keep everyone on the call safe, both participants and peer workers agree to avoid going deep into graphic details trauma they have experienced.

We know that being able to speak these things out loud can be powerful, especially if you haven’t felt safe to share them with other people in your life. We don’t want any participant to feel shame for having experienced trauma. If this does happen on a call, your peer will gently redirect you into talking about your feelings surrounding the trauma, rather than details.

Currently, there are no standard entry requirements for peer positions across organisations in Australia. Lived experience and the ability to speak about it safely are the most essential attributes, which will always be a relevant factor. However, many organisations that employ peer workers now require a Certificate 4 in Peer Work, or the willingness to obtain one within the first year of work.

At eFriend, we do not require any specific qualifications to become a peer worker, although previous training/experience in community services or mental health might be beneficial to your application. When peer support worker positions at eFriend are available, they are usually advertised on Seek.com.au and posted on our ICLA social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn). Please note that we are not able to consider current of former eFriend participants for positions to ensure your privacy is maintained and that you maintain access to the service should you wish to re-refer after 1 year. 

While we try to match each person with one peer for the duration of their eFriend journey (in order to develop a relationship and avoid repeating your story) we understand that sometimes people simply don’t “click”. If at any point you feel that you could benefit from speaking with a new eFriend peer, simply let your peer know in a friendly manner. Alternatively, if asking directly feels too confrontational, please email efriend@icla.org.au and we can organise to book you with another peer worker. Either way, no eFriend peer is going to hold that decision against you, as we all want you to have the best experience you can!

When we think about a recovery journey for our mental health, some of us might think about “processing” our deepest trauma as the way forward. And it’s true, that might be a really helpful avenue to explore. However, this type of mental health treatment should only be performed by a mental health professional who has been through specialised training. Unfortunately, this is outside the bounds of most peer work in general, and of the eFriend program specifically. 

At eFriend, we understand that trauma is part of the stories of many people who experience mental health struggles or other difficulties in life. It is never our intention to remove the topic of trauma from the table entirely. We know that being able to speak these things out loud can be powerful, especially if you haven’t felt safe to disclose them to other people in your life. We don’t want any participant to feel shame for having experienced trauma and we hope our approach doesn’t send the message that people should never speak about their trauma to anyone. 

However, in order to keep everyone on the call safe, both participants and peer workers agree to avoid going deep into details of any specific trauma they have experienced. 

When a person has experienced trauma, going into details of the event can often lead to them becoming activated (also known as triggered). This turns on the body’s stress response, which can lead to retraumatisation if it’s not handled by a trained trauma specialist. Each eFriend call goes for only 30 minutes, so we do not have time to have you fall into a trauma response and take you back out of it safely. If we end the call while you are still experiencing a visceral reaction to being activated, you might end up feeling abandoned, and this will only compound the existing trauma you’ve experienced. 

In addition, if the details you disclose lead to a trauma response in your peer worker, their brain might not be able to stay present with you in the moment. This will have a big impact on their ability to do their job well and might leave you feeling like you didn’t get the empathy or validation that you needed from the session.  

For these reasons we aim to focus not on what exactly happened to you, but more on how it makes you feel in the present and the ways this affects your life. If you would like to work directly on your trauma, this is possible, but it falls outside the scope of what eFriend can offer and should only be done with a psychologist or counsellor with specialised training.  

Currently, there are no standard entry requirements for peer positions across organisations in Australia. Lived experience and the ability to speak about it safely are the most essential attributes, which will always be a relevant factor. However, many organisations that employ peer workers now require a Certificate 4 in Peer Work, or the willingness to obtain one within the first year of work.

At eFriend, we do not require any specific qualifications to become a peer worker, although previous training/experience in community services or mental health might be beneficial to your application. When peer support worker positions at eFriend are available, they are usually advertised on Seek.com.au and posted on our ICLA social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn). Please note that we are not able to consider current of former eFriend participants for positions to ensure your privacy is maintained and that you maintain access to the service should you wish to re-refer after 1 year. 

To ask a question about the eFriend program, please send an email to efriend@icla.org.au. Let us know what we can help you with and we will get back to you with an answer as soon as we can.