ICPA2023-PID080 - Bruce Perham

Correction Officer Stories - The Hidden Voice

Author

Bruce Perham

Social Worker, Private Practice, Let's Talk Differently, Australia

Bruce Perham is a Social Worker, Family and Narrative Therapist from Melbourne, Australia, who has been working in private practice since 2008. It was not long after developing his business Let's Talk Differently (2009) that Bruce attended a critical incident debriefing at a maximum security prison in Melbourne as an Employee Assistance Counsellor (EAP). This was the beginning of an ongoing journey for Bruce providing counselling, debriefing and training throughout Victoria and Interstate. Bruce has been very inspired by the Narrative Therapy work of Michael White(dec) and places great emphasis on the importance of 'lived experience/narratives' that correction officers have shared with him in his going in and out of prisons. Bruce holds a firm belief that these descriptions of lived experience provide invaluable insights into the work place context, its psychological impact on officers and has a significant contribution to make to the Corrections Industry. In 2021, Bruce self published two books, Code Blue-Prison Officer in Danger and the O'Rourke Interviews-A Prison Officer with a Tough Story to Tell. Both books reflect Bruce's keen interest in hearing 'first hand' from correction officers about their lives in and out of the prison. Bruce is licensed, in Australia and New Zealand, to teach Dr Caterina Spinaris's ,Desert Waters Correctional Outreach Services signature course 'From Correction Fatigue to Fulfilment '(CF2F). This will be his next challenge to further promote the capacity of CF2F training to actively change the current prison culture to be a more positive work place environment.

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