News from our partners and allies in the mental health space - opportunities to connect, learn, and take part. This section features ongoing or long-term information, rather than time-critical updates.
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The National Human Rights Act
On Human Rights Day, mental health consumer peaks from across the country released Australia’s first National Mental Health Human Rights Report led entirely by and for mental health consumers and the findings are deeply alarming. The report shows that human rights breaches are happening every day across Australia. Here’s what people told us: • 9 in 10 heard discriminatory or harmful comments • 1 in 2 avoided mental health care because they feared coercion • More than 1 in 4 agreed to treatment only to avoid being forced • Half of people in inpatient units weren’t told their rights • Only 1 in 10 could see a bulk-billed psychiatrist • 1 in 13 experienced unstable housing or homelessness • 2 in 5 couldn’t find work because of discrimination These are human rights violations - not misunderstandings, not one-offs. They are built into the system. This is why we - together with @NMHCAlliance and mental health consumer peaks from across the country- are calling for a national Human Rights Act to finally give people enforceable rights to safety, dignity, and justice. HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION 1. Fill in the 2025 Human Rights Survey 2. Support a National Human Rights Act Add your name to the Human Rights Law Centre’s campaign. 3. Read and share the 2024 Human Rights Report
HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION
Add your name to the Human Rights Law Centre’s campaign.
CONFERENCE

NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH ALLIANCE 2026
Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the largest rural health event in Australia. This is the only conference that brings together people from across the country and across all disciplines – everyone with an interest in rural health will be there!
SAVE THE DATE
14-16 September 2026
SUBMISSION

Submission to Australia’s Fourth Universal Period Review
In August this year, the Alliance made a submission to Australia’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review, calling on the Government to: ✅ End involuntary treatment and restrictive practices in all settings ✅ Commit to a National Human Rights Act ✅ Ensure OPCAT compliance across every jurisdiction ✅ Revoke interpretative declarations that allow breaches of the UN CRPD. For too long, people with mental health challenges have faced coercion, restraint, and discrimination. Our submission is clear: it’s time for Australia to uphold its international human rights obligations and build a system that protects dignity, choice, and justice.
Read the
Submission here
SURVEY

HAVE YOUR HUMAN RIGHTS BEEN RESPECTED, protected, and promoted in 2025?
The National Mental Health Consumer Alliance has launched Australia’s only national Human Rights Survey designed by and for people with lived experience of mental health challenges. They want to hear how your human rights were upheld — or breached—in 2025. Whether in mental health, justice, health, or other systems, your story helps us track where Australia is meeting its international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Your responses are completely anonymous and will be analysed by the lived-experience research group ACACIA. The results will shape national advocacy to make sure human rights are real for all mental health consumers. Take the survey now — closes 31 December 2025.
Survey closes
31 December 2025.
MEDIA RELEASE

The NMHCA Announced as National Mental Health Consumer Peak
Learn about the formation of the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance - the national peak body representing the lived experience voice in mental health reform, of which MHLET is a proud member. The National Mental Health Consumer Alliance was officially recognised in 2024 as the national peak body representing people with lived experience of mental ill-health. The Alliance brings together state and territory consumer peaks - including MHLET - to strengthen the lived experience voice across all levels of mental health reform in Australia.
Read the Media release
from July 2024
SESSIONS

RECOVERY COLLEGE TASMANIA EVENTS
Recovery College Tasmania are running sessions in the North and North west! The Recovery College is offering a range of free courses designed to support mental health, wellbeing and personal recovery in our community. Join us to learn about topics such as Living with Anxiety Exploring Possibilities with Bipolar Health Bodies & Minds Living with Depression Understanding Schizophrenia Self-care gratitude & hope and more. Whether you're experiencing mental health challenges, supporting someone who is, or have a passion for mental health education everyone is welcome to learn with us. These sessions offer tools and strategies to support yourself and those around you and being held in Devonport, Burnie and Launceston.
The Recovery College
FREE courses TASMANIA
CAMPAIGN

Together, we can demand health equity for all.
Discrimination is costing lives. Every day, people living with mental health conditions are dying from preventable physical illnesses with 46 lives lost daily, each one a tragedy that could have been avoided. On average people living with mental health challenges die 11 years earlier than the general population. Your signature is a powerful act of support. It amplifies our message, strengthens our collective voice, and pushes for the change we so urgently need. The more voices we gather, the harder we are to ignore. This is your chance to make a difference.
Sign up
to the campaign today
WEBINAR

Reimagining Mental Health: National Mental Health Consumer Alliance Strategic Plan 25–28
90-minute webinar featuring leaders from the mental health consumer movement, live Q&A and a look our newly commissioned artwork by lived experience artist Lissy Elliott. Join the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance for the launch of our first Strategic Plan, Reimagining Mental Health — a bold, consumer-led roadmap for national mental health reform. This marks a defining moment in the Australian mental health consumer movement. For over six decades, people with lived experience have led courageous advocacy, transformed public discourse, and laid the foundations for more just, compassionate, and person-led systems. In this 90-minute webinar, you’ll hear from the leaders of this movement as we reflect on the history of consumer activism, celebrate hard-won reforms, and name the barriers that remain. We’ll explore the current policy landscape, our push for a Human Rights Act, and our vision for a future where every person with mental health challenges determines their own needs and wants. There will be a live Q&A and you will hear about opportunities to get involved as a consumer representative or how to stand in allyship with mental health consumers. Whether you’re a consumer, ally, policymaker, peer worker, or sector leader — this event is your invitation to be part of a growing national movement for change.
2025-2028 Strategic plan webinar below.
PROJECT

NAVIGATING MY WAY
Navigating My Way is a set of written, visual and video resources that have been developed through a co-design process centering lived experience. This project was funded by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, and was developed by VMIAC, the peak body for mental health consumers in Victoria. This project is designed to support NDIS participants with psychosocial disabilities in growing their knowledge of their rights when working with service providers. The resources aim to build skills and confidence in self-advocacy, including how to communicate their needs, provide feedback and make complaints. Navigating My Way also aims to empower service providers and support worker to better understand participants with a psychosocial disability, and to create a better complaints culture. Service-provider specific resources are available as part of the project.
Resources for Participants
& Service Providers
