Consumer-Led Conversations: Multicultural Mental Health Leadership in Action

I’m honoured to be part of the Multicultural Affinity Group and to contribute to the launch of the Consumer-Led Conversations series in 2026.

This initiative, hosted by the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, creates a dedicated space for consumer-led multicultural mental health dialogue that sits alongside, but distinct from, formal policy and advocacy processes. That distinction matters. It allows consumer voices to speak with clarity, depth, and independence, without being collapsed into institutional agendas or diluted by procedural demands.

The Consumer-Led Conversations series is intentionally structured to elevate lived and living experience leadership. It centres those who navigate mental health systems from the inside; as people, families, carers, and community members. For multicultural mental health consumers, this space is particularly important. Experiences of care are shaped not only by diagnosis or service pathways, but also by culture, migration, language, faith, racism, and power. These dimensions are often referenced in policy, yet still marginal in practice.

As part of the Multicultural Affinity Group, my colleagues and I will be sharing a project proposal that has been shaped directly by what multicultural consumers are telling us they need. The work is practical rather than abstract, grounded rather than symbolic. It reflects collective thinking, not individual positioning, and is oriented toward strengthening trust, safety, and accountability across systems that have too often struggled to hold cultural complexity well.

Consumer-led multicultural mental health work requires more than representation. It asks systems to listen without rushing to translate, to stay with discomfort, and to recognise that expertise is not confined to professional roles. When consumers lead, the conversation changes. The questions become sharper. The gaps become clearer. The solutions become more realistic.

The first session of the Consumer-Led Conversations series brings together members of the Multicultural Affinity Group and the NDIS Participants Advisory Group. It offers an opportunity to hear directly from consumers about priorities, tensions, and possibilities, and to engage in dialogue that values contribution over consensus.

This is not about speaking for communities. It is about creating conditions where communities can speak for themselves, with support rather than control. That is where durable change begins.

If you are interested in the future of consumer-led multicultural mental health, and in how lived and living experience can inform more humane and effective systems, I encourage you to join the conversation.

📅 Tuesday 27 January

🕔 5:00–6:00 pm AEDT

🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/gZbHNDSq

Based in Perth, WA, LEXs provides telehealth counselling across Australia for individuals, couples, and NDIS participants. Services extend to Social Work supervision, Peer Work supervision, training, and keynote speaking on men’s mental health, CaLD community wellbeing, and culturally responsive suicide prevention; helping people and organisations make mental-health care more compassionate, inclusive, and effective. LEXs provides services across Australia, supporting clients in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and beyond. To learn more about our work across Australia, visit LEXs' services page.