R U OK? Barbara Hocking Memorial Award 2025: Michael Elwan Finalist for Conversation Leadership

This week, I received an email that made me stop, breathe deeply, and feel the weight of both sorrow and gratitude in my chest.

I’ve been named a finalist in the R U OK? Barbara Hocking Memorial Award 2025, under the Conversation Leader category. To say this is an honour doesn’t quite capture what it means.

The award is named after the late Barbara Hocking OAM, one of Australia’s most courageous advocates for mental health. Her legacy reminds us that real change starts not with systems, but with people - everyday people - who dare to show up, ask, listen, and keep the conversation going long after the moment has passed.

And that’s what this nomination is really about. Not recognition. Not visibility. But conversation - genuine, courageous, life-saving conversation.

In many communities; especially within culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds - silence is often mistaken for strength. Grief is carried quietly, vulnerability tucked away, and reaching out can feel like a betrayal of cultural expectations. The message is clear: toughen up, don’t speak of pain, and keep going.

But there’s another way. One that honours both strength and softness. One that says connection is not weakness, but wisdom. I stand firmly in that space; where silence is replaced with dialogue, and dignity is found in being heard.

Today, I run Lived Experience Solutions (LEXs) - a practice grounded in counselling, suicide prevention, peer mentoring, and systems advocacy. I hold space for those who feel voiceless. I train organisations in how to ask, listen, and stay present. I advise state and national mental health and suicide prevention bodies. I write, speak, and teach - but most importantly, I listen.

And in everything I do, I carry my mother’s story. My father’s memory. The stories of those we’ve lost too soon.

Being named a finalist for the R U OK? Barbara Hocking Memorial Award 2025, under the Conversation Leader category, tells me something deeply affirming: That conversations don’t have to be clinical to be healing. That quiet, consistent, culturally safe dialogue can reach places services sometimes can’t.

This nomination isn’t just for me. It’s for the young carer still navigating silence. It’s for the man of colour taught to hide his pain. It’s for the grieving mother, the exhausted peer worker, the community elder, the student social worker - all holding stories the world has often overlooked. And it’s for the people who, day after day, ask others “Are you OK?” - not just on a day in September, but in the messy moments of real life.

To the team at R U OK?, thank you for seeing me - and for seeing the thousands like me. To the communities who’ve trusted me with their pain, thank you. To my family; especially my wife and children - thank you for reminding me why connection matters. And to my late mother: this one’s for you. Your silence shaped me, but your love drives me.

In solidarity,

Michael Elwan

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.