Feeling vulnerable and emotionally exposed or taken advantage of in your roles as mental health advocates sadly is a very common experience, and potentially emotionally triggering for many.

Add to the emotional triggers a feeling of fatigue and exhaustion and you could have a very dangerous combination of excess mental load topped off with emotional flooding.

Terms such as burnout, moral injury, and moral distress are often used to describe distress in clinicians and more broadly health care settings, but what about those that are working alongside clinicians in health and community settings to improve the same systems that clinicians and others work within?

Our guest speaker should know, she has experienced first hand the outcome of letting her passion for mental health advocacy become an additional concern for her own wellbeing.

De Backman-Hoyle a National Independent Mental Health Advocate has tales to share about such experiences and has navigated ways to ensure her own mental health is supported in her mental health advocacy.

Module duration approximately 1 hour

These five advocacy skills videos and tip sheets provide consumers, families and carers with the skills to advocate for individual and organisational changes in mental health.

Module duration approximately 1 hour

Topics covered include:

1. Looking after yourself
2. Briefing and debriefing
3. Keeping the enthusiasm going
4. Reflection and evaluation
5. Advocacy and the organisation

“Most of us stumble into project management and realise we’re doing it when our project is already underway.”
- Liz Asser, Inservice Training Officer, Lived Experience Australia

 More and more people with lived experience are stepping into and leading projects in the mental health space. While providing a fantastic opportunity to draw upon their lived experience to make a difference in mental health, these project environments can sometimes feel chaotic and unclear. A lack of structure and uncertainty can trigger threat responses, impact wellbeing and hinder people’s ability to deliver much-needed initiatives.

The discipline of project management can bring order and clarity to project environments, supporting lived experience workers to feel safe to draw upon their lived experience, achieve their objectives, and maintain their wellbeing. In this webinar we will share how lived experience workers can start to build their own project management toolkit through a lived experience approach to project management. We will explore the key elements that we need to get right when kicking off and then executing a project. Upfront it’s all about shared purpose, robust planning, defined scope and clear roles and responsibilities.

During execution it’s all about collaboration, tracking progress, course correction, and looking out for each other. With people at the heart of the project and wellbeing the number one priority. Join us to learn the tricks of the (project management) trade and feel more confident to take on your next lived experience project.

Presented by Di Krome.

Module duration approximately 1 hour

When it comes to mental health, there are two types of people who have lived experiences: consumers and carers. Consumers are those who have experienced mental health challenges themselves, while carers are those who have supported someone else with mental health challenges. But what happens when someone identifies as both a consumer and a carer?

In this webinar, you will learn:
1. The challenges and rewards of living with these dual perspectives.
2. The emotional toll of balancing the dual perspectives of consumer and carer.
3. Practical tips on how to navigate these dual perspectives and find a balance that works for you.

This webinar is for anyone who has experienced mental health issues as both a consumer and carer or is interested in learning more about this complex topic. It will leave you feeling empowered and informed, with a deeper understanding of the challenges and rewards of navigating these dual perspectives.

This webinar is presented by Emily Unity.

Webinar duration 38 minutes

Have you ever felt like a label defines you? When it comes to mental health, a diagnosis can often come with stigmatising labels that can impact one's sense of self. However, a diagnosis can also bring validation and access to treatment. The diagnosis debate is complex and it’s important to be aware of both the positives and negatives!

This webinar is for anyone who has been diagnosed with a mental health condition or is interested in learning more about the diagnosis debate. It will leave you feeling empowered and informed, with a deeper understanding of the positives and negatives of being diagnosed.

This webinar is presented by Emily Unity.

Webinar duration 32 minutes

Join Is Hay and Emily Unity as we explore:
• Navigating your own lived experience in non-lived experience employment
• How to understand your own story and how to tell it
• Finding your niche/purpose – being intentional
• The difficulties of working in a field defined by your identities/oppression
• Burnout and keeping yourself safe

Is Hay is a lived experience worker within the disability, mental health and youth sectors, who has experience writing and delivering workshops, creating accessible workshops, documents and programs as well as actively coordinating programs aimed at young people. Is has specific interests in disability, mental health and education and is also a freelance writer.

Webinar duration 50 minutes

“We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well… We should write because writing is good for the soul… We should write, above all, because we are writers whether we call ourselves writers or not.” Julia Cameron The Right to Write.

An interactive writing workshop with a difference. An opportunity to connect to self and others through a series of playful, guided writing activities. This is collaborative story-weaving at its’ most innovative.

Presented by Rowena Jones, Author and Lived Experience Practitioner.

Rowena loves to laugh and although often has a grey day, knows from experience it will always pass with the right supports. Rowena has served the community in a range of peer and non-peer roles the mental health not for profit, education and emergency services sectors for over 13 years, delivering and managing programs and training and conducting research. A skilled practitioner in Intentional Peer Support and Family Sensitive Practice and a devoted human rights advocate Rowena meets people where they are at on their journey to a more meaningful life. Rowena has written a book about her own experience with substance mis-sue and recovery as well as her family’s recovery while supporting her brother’s experience of mental health challenges, social isolation, discrimination and poverty. Rowena strongly believes a driver for legislative and social change towards a more inclusive community is through strengthening the peer workforce.

Webinar duration 52 minutes 

This webinar discusses young carers (ages from 8- 25) and their unique positioning in our communities as they care for a family member.

The webinar is for service providers, schools, carers or anyone interested in learning more about young carers in our community

Bringing together a very knowledgeable panel, we explore how we identify and talk about young carers, the impact of being a young carer, the supports and resources available to them, and highlight the need for systemic advocacy for this under-represented yet admirable group of individuals.

A “young carer” is a person between 8 – 25yrs who helps support a member of their household who is experiencing a mental health challenge, disability, long term health condition (including a chronic condition or terminal illness), a substance dependency or who is frail aged (Carers Recognition Act).

Presented by a panel including:

Lorraine Powell (WA Director, Lived Experience Australia)
Chrissie Fearon (Program Manager Carer Support Counselling & Young Carer teams Carers WA)
Claire Morley (Young Carers Team Carers WA)
Richard Newman (Head of Service Delivery, Carers WA)
and hear from a young carer with lived experience directly!

Webinar duration 51 minutes

Did you know there are several different types of psychologists in Australia?

Following on from the launch of our national report on consumers’ and carers’ experiences of Psychological Services (https://www.livedexperienceaustralia.com.au/psychology-report), LEA is pleased to bring you this webinar that aims to build understanding of the Roles of Psychologists. 

We are joined by Ms Tamara Cavenett, President of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), Professor Caroline Hunt, President of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association (ACPA) and Professor Sharon Lawn, Executive Director Lived Experience Australia.

Webinar duration 58 minutes

In this webinar you are given insights into how to find a mentor, be a great mentor and learn from a mentor as a mentee. This webinar aims to inspire you in your daily lives and give you some new inspiration as we move into a new year. Mentorship builds a strong sense of belonging, non-judgemental guidance, understanding and peer to peer lived experience support. 

Hosted by Simone Allan, Founder of The Mentor Evolution.

Webinar duration 57 minutes

This free webinar series has been created specifically for Consumers and Carers who want to take the next step into advocacy.

Each webinar has a subject matter expert as a guest speaker, as well as our own lived experience facilitator, to help you further develop the skills that are beneficial as an advocate.  

​If you are looking to contribute to improvements to mental health services, these webinars will cover these 6 key topics:

• Advocacy Top Tips
• Looking after yourself
• How to be heard
• Briefing & debriefing
• Keeping the enthusiasm going
• Self reflection/self evaluation

5 webinars - each webinar is approximately 45 minutes

Total duration approximately 3.5 hours