Our purpose, goals and values
Our purpose
Help people to gain better mental health, and improve the quality of their lives.
Our goals
1) Help more people
We will support more individuals and families, in more ways and places, by expanding the services we offer. We will ensure that our services meet people’s expressed needs and improve their quality of life.
2) Be customer focused in everything we do
We will value and utilise people’s lived experiences in everything we do. We will deliver responsive and flexible services for people impacted by mental ill-health, and be there when people need us.
3) Raise awareness of Mind
We will make people aware of Mind and what we offer. We will improve pathways to support and be a point of connection to people, information, events and ideas.
4) Secure our future
We will continue to develop an organisation that delivers sustainable, quality services. We will build a contemporary workforce with the skills and flexibility for the future, and invest in the development of effective operating systems.
5) Influence for social change
We will engage with the Mind community to understand their experiences and what helps. We will work with them to strive for social change on issues that matter to them.
Our values
Mind is committed to ensuring that our work and our engagement with people reflect the following values.
1) Hope
We value hope, courage and perseverance, knowing that people do recover from their mental health challenges.
2) Creativity and innovation
We value the development of new ideas and work practices that continually improve our capacity to provide excellent services.
3) Consumer focus
We value clients taking charge of their recovery and giving guidance to Mind in supporting that recovery.
4) Making a difference
We are committed to action for social justice, respect for peoples’ rights and to fostering the inclusion of Mind clients in community life.
5) Integrity
We value honesty and accountability in our relationships with consumers, carers and families, staff and other Mind stakeholders.
What we believe
What we believe underpins our models of care and every element of what we do together with individuals and communities. This is fundamental to achieving our purpose to help people gain better mental health and improve the quality of their lives.
We believe
All people have the same inherent dignity and worth.
This means
We uphold human rights.
How we do this
- We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of this land and that sovereignty was never ceded.
- We work towards equity for people of all ages, abilities, cultures, genders, sexualities, backgrounds, bodies and spiritualties.
- We work to achieve inclusion by amplifying the voices of people with lived experience of mental ill-health in services, research and advocacy.
- We respect each person’s dignity of risk by focusing on rights before risk.
- We challenge biases by honouring and valuing the power of diverse lived experiences through our co-design approach and reflective practice.
We believe
Everyone should be able to benefit from and enjoy the resources that Australia offers.
This means
We are committed to full citizenship for everyone.
How we do this
- We act to remove barriers to participation through local and national partnerships, innovative models of care and by advocating with the voice of lived experience at all levels of systems reform.
- We inspire people to dream big and help them to achieve their goals through whole-of-life planning tools and practice.
- We improve what we do through measuring outcomes that matter and our research, evaluation and practice development work
We believe
Social connection is the bedrock on which our physical and mental health is built.
This means
We support community engagement and social inclusion.
How we do this
- We build strong and respectful relationships that celebrate our common humanity with all people, including those close and important to the people we support, clinical partners, community services, corporate partners and funders.
- We connect people with each other and with their communities through our relationships with cultural community leaders, networks and organisations.
- We emphasise the importance of mutually respectful partnerships and collaborate to develop holistic, community-focused care and support.
We believe
Health is the presence of wellbeing and hope, not the absence of illness.
This means
We are grounded in recovery and promote wellbeing.
How we do this
- We apply the social model of health to service design and delivery and to our advocacy.
- We recognise that everyone is the expert in their own lives, promote choice and self-determination through providing individually tailored supports that align to each person’s preferences, values and needs and involve those who are close and important to them.
- We see the whole person, not the diagnoses, by developing practice that builds on people’s strengths and capabilities in their chosen communities.
We believe
People need to be and feel safe, heard and represented to thrive.
This means
We strive for cultural safety and cultural humility.
How we do this
- We are kind and work to offer support without judgement.
- We take action so all people are safe in our services by understanding the impact and the pain caused by systems of oppression, trauma, abuse, stigma and discrimination.
- We respect that we live and work on the lands of First Nations peoples who have never given up their connection to country and have fought for the right to self-determination since colonisation.
- We have a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and lived experience at all levels.
We believe
Without a healthy environment, no one can be healthy.
This means
We take action on climate change.
How we do this
- We act to reduce our carbon footprint through our environmental policy.
- We support people to spend time in and care for the natural world through the services and supports we offer.
- We recognise and respond to the impact on mental health of both local and global disasters and emergencies.
Acknowledgements
Mind acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise the intergenerational impact of the history of invasion, dispossession and colonisation and are committed to the recognition, respect, inclusion and wellbeing of Australia’s First Peoples.
Mind values the experience and contribution of people from all cultures, genders, sexualities, bodies, abilities, spiritualities, ages and backgrounds. We are committed to inclusion for all our clients, families and carers, employees and volunteers.
Human rights and quality of service
Mind’s human rights obligations
Human rights are the inalienable rights and freedoms that belong to every person simply because they are human.
Mind is obliged, and is proud to, work in ways that protect and promote the human rights of our clients, their carers and the broader community.
Specifically, we are bound by the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Charter Act), which came into full effect on 1 January 2008 and the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019.
There are differences between the Acts, but essentially they oblige us to treat everyone with dignity, fairness and respect and protect all people from arbitrary and excessive actions that could result in the loss of life, liberty, degrading treatment or unnecessary interference into their lives.
This means we must consider relevant human rights when making a decision and act in a manner that is compatible with human rights. In Queensland, the obligations are spelt out more fully as that we must consider human rights when delivering services, developing policies and procedures, designing projects, managing risks, making decisions, and managing complaints.
We also report compliance with the Queensland Human Rights Act, which includes:
- actions taken during the reporting period to further the objects of the legislation
- human rights complaints we’ve received, including number and outcomes, and
- review of policies, programs, procedures, practices or services undertaken in relation to their compatibility with human rights.
Accreditation standards
Mind has undergone external on-site review against industry standards every three years since 2003. Our most recent accreditation review occurred in February 2018 and Mind was successfully accredited against the following five standards:
- Quality Improvement Council for Health and Community Service Standards (QIC)
- National Standards for Mental Health Services (NSMHS)
- Human Services Standards in Victoria
- Rainbow Tick (for the Mind Equality Centre)
- Accreditation Certificate - HSQS Standards 2018 - 2021 (Queensland)
In September 2019, Mind achieved certification for its delivery against the national NDIS Safeguarding and Quality Standards.
