Consumer & Carer Participation Strategies

Involving parents with a mental illness, their partners, children and carers in the planning, delivery and evaluation of COPMI materials is our priority.

We know that first-hand knowledge and experience is necessary to ensure what we are creating is going to work.  We’ve found consumer and carer participation highly effective and it is now a critical element in everything we do.

Whilst we are continually working on how to do it better, we think we’re pretty good at involving consumers and carers and are keen to share the strategies we’ve found so effective by making them available on this page.

Watch our video below on involving consumers and carers in your work.

Checklists and guidelines

Start by being organised and develop policies, checklists and guidelines. COPMI have a number of checklists and policies to involve consumers and carers.

• Checklist for consumer and carer participation
• Checklist for participation with children and young people
• Checklist for interviews with consumers and carers
• COPMI Consumer and Carer Participation Policy
• COPMI Staff Selection Participation Policy

Engaging with stories

By sharing stories about their participation experiences, consumers and carers (and those organisations working with them) provide valuable information, guidance and advice to other organisations, consumers and carers.

We are capturing stories of ‘consumer and carer participation' on a prepared template and would love to hear your story!

Add your story online 

*Please remember to acknowledge and respect other’s intellectual property where it features in your story.

View stories of consumer and carer participation

Self advocacy

Whether you want to create a new group, make an existing one stronger, or raise the profile of consumers and carers through the media, the following links are sure to help.

• Starter kit for consumer developed initiatives by Our Consumer Place
• National Mental Health Strategy Resource Kit for advocates
• Information for working with the media by SANE Australia

Youth Participation

Youth participation allows young people to have a role in an organisation where their opinions are valued. The following AICAFMHA report and fact sheets are targeted towards youth participation:

• Scoping project report
• Benefits of youth participation
• Challenges of youth participation  
• A-Z of encouraging youth participation  
• Guiding charter  
• Supports required for youth participation  
• Models and methods - how to involve young people

The Commissioner for Children and Young People in WA has developed Participation Guidelines for Involving Children and Young People.

Policies and Standards

• Consumer and Carer Participation Policy: a framework for the mental health sector (MHCA, National Consumer and Carer Forum)
• National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce, Standard 2: Consumer and Carer Participation (Department of Health and Ageing)
• National Standards for Mental Health Services, Standard 3: Consumer and Carer Participation (Australian Government)

Inspiring articles

• Building a ‘user driven’ mental health system (Lei Ning, Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council)
• Commentary on consumer and carer participation in a national mental health promotion initiative (COPMI national initiative)
• The inevitable loneliness of personal advocacy (Michael J. Kendrick PhD, Kendrick Consulting International)

See also

• Get Involved
• What you can do
• COPMI National Family Forum