“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become” - Carl Gustav Jung
This year Mind has chosen to focus our World Mental Health Day celebrations on the unique capabilities that people with lived experience bring to mental health and wellbeing recovery.
Mind Australia will lead the development of an innovative new residential mental health recovery support service in Victoria in which people with lived experience will play a central role.
Mind Australia held its second annual Stratford Lecture at Parliament House, Sydney, a setting in which the voices and perspectives of people with lived experience of mental health challenges have not sufficiently been heard or valued. Watch the Stratford Lecture on YouTube.
Mind Australia has created a comprehensive training program to help upskill the family and carer peer workforce in Victoria.
This workforce initiative became necessary when Mind and its partner organisations encountered staffing challenges while establishing two of Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect Centres.
Mind Australia Peer Worker Michael Boyd says increasing investment in the lived and living experience workforce is needed to improve Victoria’s mental health system.
For Mental Health Awareness Month (October) and Mental Health Week (5-12 October) the Mind Australia Group is celebrating the influence of people with lived experience of mental health challenges, personally or as a family member, and lived expertise across its organisations.
The Lived Experience Career Compass, on behalf of the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing and the Department of Health, is inviting submissions from qualified organisations to conduct an independent evaluation of two Lived Experience Early Career Programs.
The 2026 Stratford Lecture was co-presented by Rana Te Huia and Magdel Hammond, who both come to Australia from Aotearoa (New Zealand). They draw on their considerable experience in lived experience governance and developing peer led services to do a deep dive into the resistances and barriers to developing a truly lived experience led mental health system.