With the support of the WA Mental Health Commission and the North, South and East Metropolitan Health Services, HelpingMinds is working with clinical staff in mental health services to co-design resources and solutions that support greater engagement between staff and the family or friends identified as the service user’s supporters. This project is built on a nationally co-designed resource – A Practical Guide to Working with Carers of People with Mental Illness. The Guide was developed by people with lived experience of mental health issues, either as consumers or carers, and staff.

This national level collaboration has generated state-based pilot projects to test the usefulness of the Guide. In WA, a co-design approach has been adopted. A diverse team of paid consumer and carer consultants have been employed to guide the project. The staff in mental health services are partners in identifying and implementing practical strategies. Co-designed resources have been collated into a tool kit to assist staff in their engagement with family members and friends. If you are involved in cultural change processes in the mental health sector or looking to identify new ways of working with the family and friends of people using mental health services, this session outlines a straightforward yet very rewarding process of co-designing site-specific solutions.