IMHA wins top award for leadership in mental health
We’ve been recognised for our commitment to consumer leadership at the 2019 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand. Our Senior Consumer Consultant Wanda Bennetts accepted the Lived Experience leadership award from the Federal Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, in a ceremony also attended by former Governor General Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO.
‘This award is recognition of what can be achieved when an organisation believes in, encourages and actively supports consumer leadership in every way possible’ said Wanda.
‘On a personal level, it is very rewarding to have the work valued in this way’ she said.
Our work
The award recognises how IMHA has embraced and privileged the voices of those with a lived experience of mental health issues to purposefully inform, design, develop and evaluate the service at all levels. This includes the employment of a Senior Consumer Consultant who works from a lived experience perspective, the establishment of a lived experience advisory group called Speaking from Experience and consumers involved in activities such as:
- recruitment of new staff
- participation on reference groups and working groups, and
- the co-production of resources.
IMHA’s expertise also contributed to Victoria Legal Aid's recent submission to theRoyal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health and a key recommendation that people’s lived experience should be at the of the system. ‘This award recognises that organisational consumer leadership can lead to positive change at a service level. It can make tangible improvements to the way services work with people, placing them and their expertise at the centre of all they do. It has been professionally and personally rewarding to learn from consumer leaders and consumers who have accessed the service’ said IMHA Manager Helen Makregiorgos.
About the award
The Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand are presented every year by The Mental Health Services Learning Network to recognise and encourage best practice, excellence and innovation in mental health service delivery. The awards have been presented annually since 1992. The Mental Health Services Learning or TheMS aims to promote positive attitudes about mental health and mental illness, and to stimulate debate that challenges the boundaries of knowledge and ideas about mental health care.
More information
Read more about The Mental Health Services Learning
Reviewed 22 July 2021