The Personnel Group celebrates a significant milestone this week

She was close to rock bottom.

"It was a lead-up toward total breakdown," she says.

"Centrelink can't recommend anyone and they stress that, but the nurse who was evaluating me could see the pain I was in and see the mental health issue, and very, very subtly steered me onto the right path to find the support I needed."

That's how Joanne found not-for-profit disability employment service provider The Personnel Group.

"I was still in counselling, still seeing doctors, you know, and (The Personnel Group consultant) Nikki took the time to build the relationship, she understood mental health is not a fast recovery," she said.

Since 1986 The Personnel Group has heard thousands of stories similar to Joanne's, of jobseekers overlooked because of their diverse needs and barriers.

The Personnel Group started in Albury-Wodonga in mid-1986 as Project Employment, an outcome of the then newly-legislated Disability Services Act.

Project Employment had a 15-month target to help 12 people with an intellectual disability transfer from sheltered workshops to open employment.

Thirty-five years ago this week, only weeks after launching, the first participant was placed in a job when, on her 19th birthday, Jenny McDermott started work at Hanrahans Linen Services in Albury.

Within three months nine people had jobs and by February 1987 negotiations with potential employers to place the milestone 12th participant were being finalised.

Although intellectual and learning disabilities made up the higher portion of people looking for work through the organisation in the early years, by the early 90s it was clear there was a growing cohort of people with a mental health condition that could benefit from specialist support to get and keep a job.

Its 2008-09 annual report showed almost three-quarters of its participants reported mental health issues.

By 2019-20 intellectual disability made up less than 4 per cent of participants while almost a third had a physical disability. Psychiatric disability participants outnumbered those people combined.

Forty-three per cent of the organisation's caseload is mental health related.

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"One in five Australians will experience a mental health episode in any given year and that impacts their family, their finances and their employment," The Personnel Group CEO Tracey Fraser says.

"As the community becomes more accepting of mental health, more people with a mental health condition are looking for work, which dramatically changed the original client base of The Personnel Group.

"In 1986 the sole focus was to support people with an intellectual or learning disability into work. Thirty-five years later over 40 per cent of the people we assist have a mental health condition as their primary reason for being with The Personnel Group."

The Personnel Group's staff are not social workers but help connect participants to other support services in the community.

The Disability Services Act (1986) was a recommendation of the 1985 Handicapped Persons Review, the first national consultation with people with disability, their families and service providers.

The review highlighted the need for major changes in disability services, including a much greater expectation that "realistic employment options should be provided for all people with disabilities, with a major focus on open employment".

The Personnel Group was the first of its kind in regional Victoria/NSW, with three staff and about 20 participants.

At the launch, founding manager Liz Bradley said the program gave employees the help needed to settle into their work environment while ensuring employers were not under extra financial and resource pressures. By October 1987, when Mrs Bradley stepped down as manager, 21 people were employed through the project and almost 70 were on the waiting list.

The current CEO says to be still operating 35 years later is a compelling milestone, providing employment services to more than 4000 participants each year.

Now employing 250 people at 50 full or part-time offices across Southern NSW, North East Victoria and the ACT, the Disability Employment Services provider also delivers Work Assist, Transition to Work, Career Transition Assistance, and ParentsNext in a number of regions. The Personnel Group is a specialist in delivering employment support to vulnerable jobseekers.

"The Disability Services Act was a major decision by government. To be still here supporting people with a disability or a mental health condition to work, 35 years since the government legislated that people have a right to work, is significant," Mrs Fraser says.

In the 25 years Mrs Fraser has been with the Personnel Group - the past six as CEO - the organisation has found meaningful and sustained employment for about 10,000 people with a disability, mental health condition, and the long-term unemployed.

"There is still an incorrect perception that someone with a disability or mental illness can only be a cleaner, or stack supermarket shelves," she said.

"Over the years we have had lawyers, teachers, nurses, engineers, town planners on our books, people from a diverse range of backgrounds that have had circumstances change their life and ended up needing a Disability Employment Service."

Joanne says the support and understanding she experienced significantly helped her recovery.

"The Personnel Group was like a breath of fresh air because they actually listened, they actually understood, it was not just one way," Joanne said. "It's a journey and (consultant) Nikki connected me to the right job and that brought my confidence back to the way it is now."

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