Dan's story transcript

Dan: Been a chef for about 12 years now. Back in the day I used to own my own cafe, so I had a lot of people skills from that. But when I went through my divorce with my partner, it broke me down so far that my confidence level had dropped. I was breaking down very, very often, I'd end up falling into tears quite a lot. I didn't know how to deal with people the way I used to know. I had lost my house, my business, and everything else in life, so I was hitting rock bottom, didn't want a bar of the world. 

When I very, very first went to APM, I didn't know what I was up for. I was thinking I'd better go to this job agency to get my Centrelink. They helped me assess my condition, and I found out that I had depression and anxiety. Just talking to them, sitting with them in the interview rooms and just chatting, getting them to understand what I was going through, basically gave them the lead to what I needed. And they were able to open that up for me again, and they gave me good ways of building my confidence and just cared about what I had to say, and it made a big difference. Once I got the past out of my head, I was on fire after that. The guys that I work with are great. My boss is really good, he's probably one of the best bosses I've ever had. 

Speaker 1: I think, when I first heard about APM, I was up in the air about what to expect. Yeah, we decided to give him a chance, we definitely needed a chop out, at the time. 

Speaker 2: As soon as we saw him work, we're just like, "Yep, we'll keep him, for sure." 

Speaker 1: He's definitely trying to take on a lot more responsibility as he goes ahead. And he's definitely putting in all the hard yards. 

Speaker 2: Socially as well, he definitely come out of his shell heaps and he's really good with people. 

Dan: I think it's changed me in a lot of ways. I feel satisfied that I've done something for that week. And I feel like I can go home feeling proud that I haven't just sat around all day, that I've actually improved my mind and do something that I enjoy, so it feels good.