Earlier this week marked a genuinely significant moment for the mental health and suicide prevention sector, and for every peer worker who has ever wondered whether their role would be recognised, valued, and supported in a way that endures.
The establishment of the Australian Association of Peer Workers is that recognition. And it has been a long time coming.
Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) warmly congratulates the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, the Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre, and Mental Health Carers Australia on coming together to establish the Australian Association of Peer Workers and commends the Australian Government for delivering the seed funding to make this possible.
Peer workers bring something that cannot be taught from a textbook: the lived experience of navigating mental health challenges, often within the very systems they now help others to access. For too long, that contribution has been deeply valued on the ground and under-recognised at the structural level.
We know the difference that peer workers make in people’s lives. The evidence is there. The stories are there. Now the national architecture to support them will be there too.
CMHA has had the privilege of working alongside the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre, and Mental Health Carers Australia for some time, and the relationships between our organisations are ones we hold with genuine respect.
The establishment of the Australian Association of Peer Workers is the next chapter in exactly that kind of collaboration, built on respect, equal standing, and a shared commitment to a mental health system that truly sees people.
“Our sincere congratulations to the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre and Mental Health Carers Australia, and to the peer workers who have advocated for this moment,” said Kerry Hawkins CEO of CMHA.
“Peer work is not a peripheral function of the mental health system, it is one of its most human expressions,” added Kerry.
“A national association that gives it national voice, standards, and career pathways is long overdue, and worth doing well,” she said.
Community Mental Health Australia looks forward to the ongoing collaboration with CEOs Priscilla Brice, Aunty Vicki McKenna, Katrina Armstrong and their teams.
