Two Mind staff members have been recognised for their contribution to strengthening the voices of families, carers, supporters, kin and people with lived experience of mental health challenges at the 2026 TheMHS Conference in Sydney.
Family Carer Strategy and Program Development Manager, Amaya Alvarez, received the Lived Experience Change Maker Carers/Family/Whanau Award, recognising her contribution to family and carer advocacy and lived experience leadership.
Amaya, who has more than 10 years’ experience in the family and carer lived experience space, said she was honoured to receive the award, which recognises work she has undertaken at Mind and across the broader family carer sector.
The award also celebrates Amaya’s contributions to developing a discipline framework for the family carer lived experience workforce and helping to establish Mental Health Carers Australia, the national peak body for carers.
More recently, she has supported Mind’s family carer strategy and program development initiatives, including the development of Mind’s new framework for working with families, carers, supporters and kin.
“I think having this work recognised is important for several reasons,” Amaya said. “Hopefully it helps with amplifying family and carer lived experience work and helps to build momentum for future improvements to families and carers services that positively impact the lives of families and carers across Australia”.
For Amaya, the conference was also an opportunity to connect with colleagues and people working across the mental health family and carer sectors, including people from interstate she can’t connect with regularly.
She said the conference highlighted the growing influence of lived experience in shaping mental health services and programs.
“It’s been a lot, in a good way,” Amaya said. “There have been lots of presentations, lots of connections between presentations that seem to be more important, or as important, as the presentation itself.”
Family Carer Engagement and Service Development Advisor Deua Stojanovska was also recognised as part of the team behind the award-winning Changing Lives project.
The project was developed through a collaboration involving RMIT, the Family and Carer Research and Advocacy Network (FACRAN), and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect workforce. Two Mind Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect services participated in the project, with Mind family and carer lived experience workers contributing to its lived experience advisory group.
“This is really a collective award for all the family carer lived experience workers that work within the Connect Centres, they really are doing life changing work,” Deua said. “And it’s a real honour to have co-led, and been part of, that research project.”
The project provided an opportunity to bring the experiences and perspectives of family carers into research and service development, helping strengthen understanding of their experiences within mental health services.
Together, the awards highlight the important contribution of lived experience to mental health research, services and programs – and the vital role families and carers play in this work.
Congratulations Amaya and Deua!
Mind offers a range of services, resources and information for families, carers and supporters. In Victoria, this includes two Mental Health and Wellbeing Connect centres in Loddon Mallee and the Grampians. To learn more about Mind’s family and carer services call 1300 286 463.