A Special Thank You To Our Sponsors and Partners

This event is only possible due to the generous support provided by our sponsors and partners.

PRIMARY FUNDER

QUEENSLAND MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION (QMHC)

The Queensland Mental Health Commission is responsible for driving reform of the mental health, alcohol and other drug and suicide prevention systems. Our job is to encourage and facilitate change to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders, with a focus on promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, and preventing and reducing the impact of mental ill-health, alcohol and other drug-related harms and suicide. It takes collective action at all levels and across many sectors to achieve reform and we work with government and non-government agencies, people with lived-living experience, families, carers and supporters throughout Queensland to engage, inform and inspire reform.

GOLD SPONSORS

Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Queensland (MHLEPQ)

MHLEPQ was established to provide policy advice and systems advocacy for consumers of mental health services of all ages in Queensland. We are especially focused on those of us who are marginalized and disadvantaged in the system. We base our advice and advocacy on principles of equity, access, cultural-safety, and human rights.MHLEPQ also focuses on building capacity and empowering mental health consumers to participate as consumer representatives in the mental health sector.

QUEENSLAND ALLIANCE FOR MENTAL HEALTH (QAMH)

Queensland Alliance for Mental Health (QAMH) is the peak body for the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Sector in Queensland. We represent more than 100 organisations and stakeholders involved in the delivery of Community Mental Wellbeing Services across the state. Our role is reform, promote and drive community mental service delivery for all Queenslanders, through our influence and collaboration with our members and strategic partners. We are also the Psychosocial Peak Body (PPB) in Queensland, which provides information about services, training to boost inclusion, and advocates directly to Government on issues affecting people experiencing psychosocial difficulties.

QUEENSLAND PRIMARY HEALTH NETWORKS (PHNs)

Queensland Primary Health Networks (PHNs) are independent organisations funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care, with key objectives to:

  • improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health services for people, particularly those at risk of poor health outcomes.
  • improve coordination of care to ensure patients receive the right care in the right place at the right time.

Queensland PHNs plays a vital role in improving health services by addressing local health needs and fostering integration across the system, and to enhance the efficiency in mental health service delivery through ongoing engagement and a partnership approach.

The Queensland PHNs Collective consists of seven PHNs:

  • Northern Queensland PHN
  • Western Queensland PHN
  • Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN
  • Country to Coast Queensland
  • Brisbane North PHN
  • Brisbane South PHN
  • Gold Coast PHN

The Queensland PHNs Collective meet six times annually to address and advance key work areas, reducing duplication and enhancing collective efficiency.

SILVER SPONSORS

EATING DISORDERS QUEENSLAND (EDQ)

Eating Disorders Queensland (EDQ) is a statewide, community-based not-for-profit organisation. We are an eating disorder service located in Brisbane and have a hub in Cairns. We support both individuals who are living with an eating disorder; their carers, loved ones, and key support people.

Support options include therapeutic and psychosocial support for individuals, and coaching and community connection for carers. EDQ also provides early intervention opportunities with community education events focusing on creating healthy relationships with food and our bodies. We are passionate about eradicating weight stigma and diet culture.

BRONZE SPONSORS

Brain & Mind Hub

Brain and Mind Hub is transforming mental healthcare with a brain-based model grounded in neuroscience, cutting-edge technology, and lived experience. Guided by integrity and positive inclusion, our world-class team delivers personalised, precision-medicine approaches, redefining care with compassion and innovation for all who seek support.

SPEAKING SPONSOR 

LIVED EXPERIENCE AUSTRALIA

Lived Experience Australia is a national representative organisation for mental health consumers and carers, families and kin, formed in 2002. We are the recognised peak for the private sector. We advocate in all parts of the mental health system, NDIS and psychosocial disability support, suicide prevention, and peer workforce.

PARTNERS

ARAFMI

Arafmi provides free support for mental health carers in Queensland, including a 24-hour Carer Support Line; individual and group support; workshops; and respite accommodation. As the peak body for unpaid mental health carers in Queensland, Arafmi advocates for systemic reforms to government and service providers. Arafmi also operates a community mental health and wellbeing service for people experiencing mental ill-health.

COMMUNIFY

Communify is a place-based community services organisation with over 40 years of experience in listening and responding to the needs and interests of our community members. We are strongly established to provide wraparound services which support the most vulnerable members of our community. We ensure that we address both the immediate needs as well as the underlying issues that have impacted on the individual or family. We deliver a comprehensive suite of services that address issues related to aging, disability, mental health, chronic health conditions, homelessness, addiction, poverty and food insecurity, unemployment, tenancy failure, domestic and family violence and relationship breakdown, justice, and child protection. Many of these issues are interrelated. We support people to achieve their recovery and personal goals, remain independent, maintain quality of life, build and repair relationships and develop strong connections to their communities. Our recovery-oriented mental health and dual diagnosis drug and alcohol services are centred on, and adapt to, the aspirations and needs of each individual in our programs. This approach requires a shared vision and commitment across all our services, shared wellness, treatment/recovery plans and care co-ordination. 

FLOURISH AUSTRALIA

Flourish Australia is one of country's largest and most experienced community mental health organisations. Flourish Australia provides support to people with a lived experience of a mental health issue and has done so since 1955. We are deeply committed to inspiring full and rich lives for each person and providing a range of services that support people’s personal growth, and assists them to make a home, get a job, and most importantly, have a sense of belonging. In doing this, we help create communities in which everyone feels understood, accepted, and valued; places where people feel they belong. Every day, Flourish Australia’s team of almost 900 staff support more than 10,000 people living with a complex mental health issue on their recovery journey. We have established one of Australia’s largest peer workforces, a proven, strengths-based approach to mental health recovery. Valuing lived experience is central to our approach, and more than half our workforce have experienced a mental health issue. At the core of Flourish Australia, is a single and powerful vision: To actively create and inspire a world where everyone’s mental wellbeing can flourish.  

QuIHN

QuIHN is an independent not-for-profit providing a range of specialist social and health services relating to alcohol, other drug use and mental health. We are founded by the communities for which we exist & serve, and we are governed through a peer-led approach & framework. We work with vulnerable people, their families & communities across Queensland experiencing or at risk of harms associated with the use of substances illicitly to advance the dignity, health & wellbeing of marginalised or excluded populations. Operating Queensland-wide, QuIHN provides programs across a continuum of care comprising of harm reduction programs, therapeutic programs and primary health care. Our services include needle syringe programs, hep c testing and treatment, counselling, groups, outreach, prison programs and peer programs.  At QuIHN we envision a world where all people who use substances are able to reach their full potential and the health and wellbeing outcomes of our community is maximised. 

QuIVAA

QuIVAA is a peer-based organisation which has been fighting for the health and human rights of people who use drugs in Queensland for over 30 years. QuIVAA aims to be the amplified voice representing the diversity of people who use drugs, through advocacy aimed at addressing systemic and individual issues affecting people throughout Queensland. QuIVAA board and staff consist exclusively of people with lived - living experience (LLE) of drug use.  QuIVAA is committed to questioning the status quo whilst advocating for evidence-based policy reforms that prioritise health and human rights.

ROSES IN THE OCEAN

Roses in the Ocean is the national lived experience of suicide organisation – striving for every person to have access to a suicide prevention system that is designed and led by people with lived experience of suicide. They do this by innovating and transforming suicide prevention and driving system reform through the expertise of people with lived experience of suicide. They support organisations and government to integrate and partner with lived experience expertise effectively and meaningfully. At the heart and soul of Roses in the Ocean are people with a lived experience of suicide, and the organisation is dedicated to empowering those with a lived experience to find their voice and build their capacity to bring their insights and wisdom to suicide prevention. Roses in the Ocean pride themselves on successfully operating at a grass roots level within communities and at a strategic and operational level with non-government organisations, the private sector and government. Everyone who works at Roses in the Ocean has a lived experience of suicide which is defined as ‘having experienced suicidal thoughts, survived a suicide attempt, cared for someone through suicidal crisis, or been bereaved by suicide’.

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service

The Wide Bay Mental Health and Specialised Services values the contribution that consumers and their chosen support networks provide to our service's desire to provide holistic, trauma-informed, strength-based and recovery-focused care. Engaging in genuine partnerships across our communities, allows us to strengthen our service that welcomes diversity and promotes an open and responsive, safe service.

The Wide Bay Mental Health & Specialised Service (WBMHSS) has developed models of care consistent with national standards and is responsive to the needs of the community.  We provide a range of specialist Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug treatment services through Acute Inpatient, Sub Acute,  Community and Rehabilitation Services across the Wide Bay region.  Lived experience and the consumer's voice is represented across all levels of our service.

 The WBMHSS strongly campaigns to reduce stigma connected to mental illness. Stigma has a negative impact on individuals, their families, their support networks, and is directly linked to people becoming less inclined to seek support or access available care when needed. As leaders of health care in our community, we have created a movement to shatter mental health stigma by raising awareness, changing culture, challenging misconceptions, supporting our staff and clients, and embedding positive workplace behaviour.

Our Lived-Living Experience Worker Team connects with individuals and their families, carers and other personal supports through the shared perspective of lived and living experience. The discipline is recognised for their expertise in sensitively and respectfully working with consumers, families and carers to facilitate rapport building and relationship safety in the context of service provision. 

Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Queensland (MHLEPQ)

MHLEPQ was established to provide policy advice and systems advocacy for consumers of mental health services of all ages in Queensland. We are especially focused on those of us who are marginalized and disadvantaged in the system. We base our advice and advocacy on principles of equity, access, cultural-safety, and human rights.MHLEPQ also focuses on building capacity and empowering mental health consumers to participate as consumer representatives in the mental health sector.

Community Focus

 

Community Focus is a community based mental health organisation, maintaining a consistent commitment to remain flexible, almost organic in our capacity to grow and change with our participants and the needs of our community, essentially, “life” is experienced through meaningful interactions and relationships with others. It is the diversity that exists within our society that renders it strong, and it is the co-operation of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences –including those with mental health challenges –that renders it supportive, flexible and accepting.Our primary focus is Mental Health and Addiction as well as Acquired Brain Injury, and Autism.