What is the problem/issue that requires action?
Family separation creates a mental health crisis affecting entire communities. Most people navigate this trauma without understanding what's happening psychologically. Legal professionals lack trauma-informed training, inadvertently escalating mental health issues. People enter separation proceedings already traumatized, then face a system rewarding conflict over collaboration, creating prolonged disputes that damage mental health and harm children.

What do we know or have we learned to address this problem/issue, and how has this finding been derived?
Analysis of 3,000+ separation direct cases shows people who understand separation psychology and learn communication tools resolve disputes 60% faster with better mental health outcomes. Separation is a predictable psychological journey, but without education, people get stuck in trauma responses fueling conflict. Legal professionals often escalate situations due to lack of trauma recognition training. The "relationship circle" framework helps people understand their changing family structure and develop healthy communication patterns.

How has this been used in practice?
Implementing trauma-informed education at legal proceedings' start, plus communication training, reduced average case duration from 18 to 7 months. The "relationship circle" tool helps couples visualize new family structures and establish protective boundaries. Training legal professionals in trauma recognition and appropriate referrals prevents crisis situations. When people understand they're experiencing normal separation grief, not personal failure, they engage constructively with legal and mental health support.

What actions should we take in the future to address the problem/issue?
Systematic change is needed: mandatory trauma-informed training for legal professionals, early intervention education for separating families, and integrated mental health support in legal processes. This prevents mental health crises rather than treating them post-damage, creating healthier families and reducing long-term community costs.

Context and aim: Physical inactivity and poor mental health are significant and interrelated concerns among adolescents, with both short- and long-term impacts. Schools are well-positioned to address these issues due to their infrastructure and reach. Evidence suggests that physical activity can improve mental health, and school-based programs that integrate both domains may enhance outcomes while reducing implementation barriers related to curriculum demands. This study aimed to assess the acceptability, feasibility, perceived effectiveness, and factors influencing implementation of a combined physical activity and mental wellbeing program delivered in Australian secondary schools.
Methods and Analysis: A pilot study was conducted in two New South Wales secondary schools with Year 7 students. The teacher-delivered program ran for five weeks and included both physical activity and mental wellbeing content. Data were collected via surveys and focus groups with participating teachers and students, assessing implementation fidelity, acceptability, feasibility, confidence to deliver, perceived effectiveness, and implementation barriers. Seven teachers (64%) and 87 students (58%) participated. Both schools implemented all program components.
Outcomes: Teachers reported high levels of confidence (71%-100%) and feasibility (71%) in delivering the program, with most rating it acceptable (40%-100%) and supportive of student wellbeing. Students also found the content acceptable (74%-78%) and engaging. Identified barriers included limited financial resources (86%) and lack of formal recognition for delivery (71%). Students recommended more active lessons, teacher and peer involvement, and autonomy in activities to boost engagement.
Future actions: The program shows promise as a feasible and acceptable approach to jointly address adolescent physical and mental health. Findings support further controlled evaluation of its effectiveness on student outcomes and highlight key areas to optimise future implementation and scalability.

Primary care and mental health professionals play a key role in supporting those experiencing mental health concerns and suicidal distress. However, outside of clinical care settings, family, friends and carers provide most of the practical and emotional support. Challenges associated with the caring role can contribute to strain, distress and mental health concerns for carers. Supporting carers is critical to preventing the onset or worsening of mental health concerns and suicidality of the carers themselves, as well as building and maintaining their capability to provide effective support.
Primary care and mental health professionals are well placed to identify and offer support to these carers. In health service roles, knowledge about including family and friends in care is increasingly expected, especially in mental health and primary care settings. While involving carers is part of collaborative care models promoted by policies, many staff report a lack of training in this area, hindering effective engagement with family and friends in the care process.
An online training program has been developed to ensure primary care and mental health service providers have the knowledge, skills and confidence to identify, engage and support carers of those experiencing mental health concerns or suicidal distress. This presentation will explore how this training was developed, including the needs identified in consultation with primary care professionals, mental health service providers and those with a lived experience of providing and receiving care. The presentation will also highlight key content of the training and recommended strategies for engaging with carers to ensure their mental health is promoted and protected throughout the often-challenging role of providing care.
This project focuses on the need for carers to be engaged in care and highlights the importance of upskilling those in roles that serve as key touchpoints for this at-risk population.

Context and Objective:
Youth with complex mental health (CMH) conditions often exhibit high rates of nicotine use, including cigarette smoking and vaping, which exacerbates both mental and physical health risks. This complexity hampers recovery and increases mortality, with nicotine-related harm frequently surpassing that of the underlying mental health conditions. Evidence indicates that cessation of smoking and vaping can improve mental health outcomes, particularly when cessation support is integrated within existing mental health services. In Queensland, the Quitline program offers an Intensive Quit Support Program (IQSP) designed specifically for youth experiencing CMH. The program provides nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and tailored counselling aiming to support smoking and vaping cessation among this vulnerable population.
Methods and Evaluation:
In September 2024, Quitline introduced an evaluation framework to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the IQSP among youth with CMH. Clients were assessed at two intervals: three months after the initial planning call (EV1) and six months following the first evaluation call (EV2). Key evaluation metrics included program engagement, participation, counselling session completion, and cessation outcomes.
Outcomes:
During the 2024–25 financial year, 1,143 clients were referred to Quitline from community mental health and AOD services. Of these, 21% (n=245) were under 30 years of age. Among this subgroup, 40% (n=99) engaged with the IQSP. Thirty-four participants completed at least one counselling session and a follow-up assessment. At three months, 35% (n=12) of these individuals reported successfully quitting smoking or vaping.
Future Actions:
Preliminary findings indicate that integrating intensive quit support within youth mental health services is feasible and associated with positive cessation outcomes. Future efforts will focus on enhancing program delivery, monitoring long-term outcomes, and expanding service access across diverse clinical settings to support sustained nicotine cessation in youth with CMH.

In recent years, Australia’s lived experience workforce has experienced tremendous growth, offering new opportunities to embed recovery-oriented and person-centred care into mental health services. However, with rapid growth comes challenges. Peer workers in multidisciplinary teams can often feel undervalued, isolated from the broader organisation and as though they have no clear pathway for development. Without support, the very workforce that brings hope, empathy and connection risks burnout and disconnection.

For peer work to be effective, safe and sustainable, we need to create an environment where lived experience is not only acknowledged, but championed. To do so meaningfully, this requires structural change and genuine partnership between leadership, people and culture and the lived experience team.

When supporting a lived experience team, organisations must consider the distinct set of values and principles that peer workers are guided by. They must adopt new ways of working, engage in deep listening and ongoing learning, which can only be achieved when you have buy-in from the top and commitment across the organisation.

Join Emily Smith (Peer Work Manager) and Olivia Goodchild (People and Culture Manager) as they discuss how they partner to effectively support the wellbeing, growth and development of ReachOut’s PeerChat team. ReachOut’s PeerChat team has grown by 375% (from 4 to 19) since its launch in 2022. Instrumental to this growth has been the co-design of new leadership roles, clear pathways for development, and wrap-around support that acknowledges the emotional labour of sharing your own story to support others.

Drawing on their expertise, Emily and Olivia will highlight how embedding lived experience and prioritising collaboration can create workplaces where peer workers feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work. Through practical examples, they will show how inclusive dialogue, open conversations and co-designed solutions are strengthening ReachOut’s lived experience workforce.

Australian farmers die by suicide at up to twice the rate of the general population, despite not having proportionally higher rates of diagnosed mental illness. Geographic isolation, exposure to uncontrollable stressors, limited access to services, and feeling misunderstood by traditional mental health services contribute to this inequity. The Back on Track (BoT) feasibility research trial explores a peer-guided, community-based mental health support model tailored for farming communities. Integrating lived farming experience with Behavioural Activation (BA), the program seeks to improve mental health outcomes and reduce barriers to seeking help.
The trial is implemented in three Victorian farming communities following five years of co-design with farming communities, academics and service providers. Participants include trained peer workers (coaches) employed and trained in Behavioural Activation (BA) and community members experiencing low mood or depression. BA is a structured, evidence-based therapy for depression that encourages engagement in positive activities and reduces avoidance. The approach can be delivered by non-clinicians with appropriate training. The BoT trial includes robust training, governance, and a supervision framework to support Coaches and ensure quality service delivery and safety.
Early findings include insights from participant recruitment, training, and program delivery. Feasibility of the intervention has been tested across all three sites, with good levels of community engagement and participant commitment.
Data collection and analysis are due to be completed March 2026—informing future implementation and potential scalability.
BoT offers a model for addressing rural mental health challenges through culturally relevant, accessible, peer-guided support. Leveraging shared farming experience and evidence-based practice, the program could play a critical role in building capacity, reducing suicide risk and improving wellbeing in agricultural communities.
Findings to date have informed the design of a next phase implementation trial across areas of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia to assess scalability, place-based adaptability and impact in other farming contexts.

The phase-out of Australia’s live sheep export industry presents profound social and economic uncertainty for WA farming enterprises. Recognising the increased risk of mental ill-health and suicide in these communities, Holyoake has developed a comprehensive, evidence-informed, community-led wellbeing training initiative to strengthen individual and collective capacity to navigate this change.

Over 18 months, Holyoake will deliver tailored mental health literacy and suicide prevention programs across six regions of Western Australia. Drawing on 25+ years of evidence-based training in the Wheatbelt, Holyoake will offer Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Accidental Counsellor, and AgriBalance, ensuring timely and locally relevant mental health & suicide prevention upskilling. Each community will select the program most suited to its needs, ensuring ownership, engagement, and sustainability.

Participants (including farmers, families, frontline workers, and industry professionals) will gain practical skills across the three complementary programs. MHFA builds capacity to recognise signs of distress, encourage professional help-seeking, and connect individuals to referral pathways. Accidental Counsellor equips participants to conduct difficult conversations, de-escalate crises, and maintain healthy boundaries. Holyoake’s AgriBalance, developed specifically for the agricultural sector, embeds these skills in farming contexts, enabling participants to reframe negative thinking, identify strengths, and apply adaptive coping strategies. Together, these programs deliver culturally relevant, industry-informed tools to strengthen resilience and saferty within farming communities.

The program incorporates pre and post-training evaluation to capture changes in knowledge, confidence, and community capacity. Comparable Holyoake programs have demonstrated significant improvements in mental health literacy, help-seeking, and self-care, with participants reporting greater confidence to support others while safeguarding their own wellbeing.

This presentation will share the design, implementation, and emerging outcomes of this sector-specific model. By empowering communities to choose and apply training most relevant to them, Holyoake demonstrates how evidence-based, community-led interventions can mitigate suicide risk, strengthen resilience, and increase safety in times of industry-wide change.