Family Engagement work In the Mental Health space for 15 years. 7 Years at Mind Australia, 4 of those at Logan Youth Step up step down where this presentation is based on. Dip In community Services, Dip In Mental health and Counselling, Single Session Family work Through La Trobe University. Mother of 4, Wife to 1 with a Lived Experience with in Family and community supports on Journeys to Recovery.

Natalie is an Occupational Therapist who joined SVHM Mental Health services 3 years ago in a service development position. She currently leads the Transformation and Reform Agenda alongside two lived experience project officers. Natalie has a passion for high quality clinical care that puts the consumer and their supporters in the centre of their healthcare experience.

Heather Nowak Living with a mental illness over the last 40 years, Heather has experienced many of the difficulties faced by consumers residing in both metropolitan and particularly regional areas, having lived the past 30 years in Broken Hill NSW, Mount Gambier in the Southeast of SA, and the Adelaide Hills. During her recovery, Heather developed a passion to use her lived experience to inform future planning, design and delivery of mental health services, to ensure that the journey for current and future consumers and their carers is made as smooth as possible and to enable optimal recovery outcomes. Heather has worked as a Peer Worker in both metropolitan Adelaide and regionally in the Southeast, gaining extensive experience in the peer role. Heather participated in the development of the National Qualification for Peer Workers and assisted in co-designing the resources for the Certificate IV Mental Health Peer Work. Heather has trained the certificate in NSW & SA. Heather is a former SA Mental Health Commissioner and has held numerous consumer positions on National committees as a member of the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum.

Andrew is a General Manager Services for Flourish Australia Services. He developed the service model for the Resolve Program and has been involved since the design and implementation of Australia's first Social Benefit Bond in mental health. He is passionate about having person-led services supporting people with their individual goals while meeting outcomes-based funding requirements.

Michael has worked in mental health services since he was 16 years old. In NSW he has held four different nurse consultancies and now works in projects and policy. He believes that complex systems and problems need complex solutions, and creating those requires time and skill.

Anne O’Grady is a maths and technology tutor from the Blue Mountains NSW. As a person supported by Flourish Australia, Anne sits on the nationwide Community Advisory Council and the Community Research Advisory Committee. She also chairs her Flourish Australia Local Advisory Group (Katoomba, Lithgow and Windsor). Anne is a co-facilitator of the Blue Mountains Bipolar Support Group and is on the Blue Mountains Women's Health Centre's Disability Advisory Committee. She is currently undertaking a Master of Arts in Sociology at the University of New England. Her research interests are neurodivergence, mad studies, crip theory, domestic violence, masculinities and poverty.

Charlotte (she/her) was one of the first graduates of Satellite Connect and is now a Peer Facilitator in Satellite spaces. She wants to advocate for how important and life changing peer connection and creativity can be. She enjoys learning about others' stories and interests and hopes to create environments that feel safe and inviting to all. Charlotte has a passion for mental health, with a keen interest in neurodivergence. Outside of Satellite, Charlotte can be found crafting and reading, or hanging out with her supportive partner, Joel, and their two cats, Thor and Ember.

Mary O’Hagan was a key initiator of the psychiatric survivor movement in New Zealand in the late 1980s and was the first chairperson of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry between 1991 and 1995. She has been an advisor to the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Mary was a full-time Mental Health Commissioner in New Zealand between 2000 and 2007. Mary established the international social enterprise PeerZone which provides peer support and resources for people with mental distress. She has written an award-winning memoir called ‘Madness Made Me’ and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2015. Mary is currently Executive Director Lived Experience in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division at the Department of Health in Victoria. All Mary’s work has been driven by her quest for social justice for one of the most marginalised groups in our communities.

Dr Jan Orman is a GP with a special interest in mental health. She has worked as a facilitator in the Black Dog Institute Professional Education Team since its inception and as clinical lead in the Black Dog Institute's arm of the eMHPRac Project since 2013.

Mark is the Chief Executive of Flourish Australia, a leading Community Managed Organisation providing community-based supports and employment for people living with a complex mental health issue, and employing of a large mental health peer workforce. Flourish Australia’s founding organisations, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Australia (PRA) and Richmond Fellowship of NSW, were key contributors to the introduction and growth of recovery, rehabilitation and psychosocial support services in Australia. Mark is a registered psychologist with postgraduate qualifications in health service management, health informatics, corporate governance and special education. Mark has a specific interest in service redesign, innovation and evaluation, and, in particular, the use of technology to deliver information and supports to people with lived experience, their families and carers. He is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Public Health in that area at the University of New South Wales.

Karen is the inaugural Chief Executive of the New Zealand Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission established in 2021. Karen has held a variety of health management and leadership roles that focus on improving outcomes for people through working with people and communities. Previously, Karen was Director Health Quality Improvement and Deputy Chief Executive at the Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC). In this role she led national patient safety and quality improvement programmes across public and private hospitals, primary and community care, mental health and addiction services, and aged care. Karen has also held roles as National Lead for Elective Services and Group Manager Funding at the Ministry of Health, as well as operational roles in a District Health Board.

Co-founder of Kāpiti Youth Support with a background in Public Health Nursing and 36 years’ experience working specifically with taiohi. Raechel has actively participated in multiple youth-focused research initiatives both nationally and internationally with a focus on best practice for taiohi. She was involved with; suicide prevention modelling in Aotearoa, PARTH, and Malatest. Developed a youth outcome measurement model (MIRO). And recently received a Mental Health Service Award.

Ali Pain is the Senior Advisor-Lived Experience (Consumer) at the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission (MHWC). She has worked extensively in the mental health sector. Ali’s role is to ensure that all the Commission's work is guided by lived experience. She uses her expertise and experience to provide strategic advice and collaborate, co-produce and co-design projects and day to day work.

Victoria trained in the arts and humanities in applied ethics and human change. They are Professor of Co-Design and Primary Care Mental Health at The University of Melbourne and a Co-Director of the ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation.

Fi Paskulich is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Advocacy and Reform team at the Mental Health Commission of NSW. In previous roles, they have worked in LGBTIQ+, youth, custodial and social security settings, delivered suicide prevention training and support, and managed a volunteer peer workforce within an early intervention mental health support service.

Jasmine is recent ANU Master of Public Health graduate and has been the lived experience Research Officer on this project since 2022.

Associate Professor Melissa Petrakis is Group Director of Social Work Innovation, Transformation and Collaboration in Health (SWITCH) Research Group, Department of Social Work, Monash University. She has worked in mental health services for over 30 years, as a clinician, service manager, then practice-based researcher. She has authored over 100 publications and is sought after to mentor projects internationally. She was awarded The Tom Trauer Evaluation and Research Award, by TheMHS, acknowledging excellence in her approach to research, championing co-design, co-production and co-authorship, with clinicians, people with lived experience of mental distress and families.

Jasmine, a community engagement expert, and interpreter, specialises in collaboration with culturally diverse communities, especially refugees and asylum seekers. At cohealth since 2017, she spearheads the bicultural program, developing standards, policies, and training for mainstream organisations employing bicultural workers. Her team supports 400+ bicultural workers through the Victorian BCWs Network, with regular training and reflective practice opportunities.

With 25 years as a qualified social worker, Tom is an experienced mental health clinician and senior leader. For the past 8 years, Tom has led the development of the Lived Experience Workforce at Monash Health, and has a deep understanding of the value this workforce brings to mental health service planning, delivery and review