The peak body for mental health carers in NSW.
Our Vision: advocating for safe and competent mental health services and systems that recognise and respect carers as partners in care planning and delivery, to achieve recovery.
Our Mission: to support, empower, capacity build, and advocate with mental health carers to ensure their voices and experiences are heard.
As a peak body, MHCN works with and for mental health carers in NSW. We represent the voices and lived experience of mental health carers which help us to advocate systemically for mental health reform.
Learn More About MHCNOur network is a free community engagement program designed by and for mental health carers, families and friends. Our network is the heart of what we do at MHCN – driven by the lived experience of carers.
Become A MemberMHCN provides a collective voice for carer needs and issues and advocates for government and non-government organisations to engage lived experience in their work, services and systems.
How We Advocate
MHCN facilitate a range of free training and education sessions, as well as events, information webinars, and lots more, for mental health carers as well as organisations, stakeholders, and anyone interested in attending.
This includes MHCN’s Training and Education Program consisting of 8 different topics, the Peak Speaks Webinar series, ‘About MHCN’ information sessions we can deliver to organisations and mental health carer groups, and other events we run through the year.
Check out what we are doing in 2026!
Helpful info and support for people caring for someone with mental health challenges in a correctional facility or the forensic hospital.
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Helpful info and support for First Nations Carers.
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If you’re worried about someone’s mental health, check out our helpful tips on how to have a conversation.
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Check out what payments you may be eligible for as a mental health carer and where to get help with your finances.
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Information for mental health carers about the mental health system.
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Mental Health Carers NSW (MHCN) are pleased to invite members to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2026, featuring a special memorial service for Anne Stedman, MHCN’s President and much-loved mental health carer advocate, who passed away in June 2026. Event details: Date: Thursday 26 November 2026 Time: 11.45am: Registration12.00pm – 1.00pm: Anne Stedman Memorial1.00pm […]
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For National Carers Week, MHCN CEO, Jonathan Harms, and Laura Knight, Carer and MHCN Organisational Development Manager, spoke with Fran Kelly on The Radio National Hour. They spoke about the everyday reality of caring for a loved one with mental illness, and MHCN’s podcast, Caring Between Minds, hosted by Patty Kikos. Laura has cared for […]
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Internal papers released this week through Parliament show NSW Health estimated in December 2024 that public mental health services are short $550-600 million a year in frontline staff. Its own planning work found psychosocial support needs to double, another $187 million a year. That is a gap of about $787 million a year. 29% of […]
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From 12 October 2026, Legal Aid NSW has stopped providing legal assistance to patients in public hospital mental health wards who are facing Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) hearings to authorise involuntary treatment. Due to funding cutbacks, Legal Aid will only represent people in narrowly defined matters under the Mental Health Act, mainly initial involuntary […]
The NSW Community Mental Health Services Priority Issues Paper (Gap Analysis Report) from 2023 has been released. MHCN, alongside our partners in the NSW Mental Health Alliance, has been advocating for the release of this report since it was completed in December 2023. The report was released 28 August 2026. Its release comes off the […]
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Mental Health Carers NSW and BEING – Mental Health Consumers, are urging the NSW Government to prioritise the next National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, after it was pulled from today’s Health Ministers Meeting agenda. Discussions were postponed to December after Commonwealth and state and territory negotiations stalled over psychosocial support funding, leaving families […]
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The Eunice Lonergan Carer Respite Grants is a program run by MHCN to provide mental health carers in NSW an opportunity to take a holiday break from their caring duties.
The Mental Health Carer Connections Meetings are a series of monthly online meetings which are a space for people to connect with others, talk about advocacy, and how we can work together to identify and address mental health carer issues.
The Carers of Forensic and Corrections Patients Network is a series of monthly online meetings with family members and carers that have a loved one in the forensic and justice system.
