A lookback at The 2024 MHS Conference: empowering Youth Voices in the Fight for Mental Health Awareness

Back in August of this year, we attended The Mental Health Services (TheMHS) Conference alongside three young people from our Youth Advisory Council and Casual Facilitator team: Charlotte, Caleb, and Chloe. We attended both as conference attendees and conference speakers!

While most of you might know us for providing a wide range of free in-person and online programs, workshops, activities, and projects for children and young people with family mental health challenges — part of our work at Satellite Foundation is to also advocate for young people’s voices to be included in systems change. We believe that young people should be empowered and supported to not only participate in, but to lead and shape positive change in the Mental Health Sector.

We were lucky enough to have our conference abstract accepted — providing the opportunity for three of our young program graduates, and current casual staff, to run a short workshop in the Creative Connections stream, highlighting our Satellite Connect program. We are excited to share with you all a conference recap through the eyes of young people!

On the left is Chloe (YAC member, consumer, carer), in the middle is Caleb (YAC member, consumer, carer), and on the right is Charlotte (Peer Facilitator, consumer, carer).

A little bit about the conference

2024 was the 34th annual mental health services conference held by TheMHS. The focus this year was Finding Common Ground: Celebrating Difference and Looking Beyond to Find the Common Ground.

“There are many valid perspectives in mental health. They are informed by both lived and learned experience. Our differences and unique perspectives contribute to the richness of our sector.”

Given this year’s theme, we thought it was particularly important to include the voices of young people!

We provided conference attendees with a taster of one of our Flagship Programs: Satellite Connect. Satellite Connect is a topic-based program for 18-25 year olds who have a family member with mental health challenges. Attendees were invited to participate in discussions and activities that are part of the program. This workshop was led by young graduates of the program and demonstrated the power of creativity and peer connection to make safe spaces for exploring hard conversations.

The Power of Voices: Introducing our Young Graduates and Workshop Facilitators

Charlotte (Peer Facilitator, consumer, carer): Charlotte (she/her) was one of the first graduates of Satellite Connect and is now a Peer Facilitator in Satellite spaces. She is an advocate for how important and life changing peer connection and creativity can be. She enjoys learning about others’ stories, interests and hopes to create environments that feel safe and inviting to all. Charlotte has a passion for mental health, with a keen interest in neurodivergence.

Caleb (YAC member, consumer, carer): Caleb (he/they) is working on developing a career in the Lived Experience workforce. Joining Satellite by sheer circumstance, Caleb has grown an ever-long obsession with the ideologies and mission of our organisation, after running through just one of the programs. He participates as a Youth Advisory Council member, volunteer and expresses interests in as many facets of Satellite as possible.

Chloe (YAC member, consumer, carer): Chloe (she/her) took part in Satellite Connect in 2023 and became a Youth Advisory Council member in 2024. She hopes to combine her lived experience with her academic background in psychological science and criminology, to advocate and create change in collaboration with other young people.

Key Speakers & Sessions: Sharing the Most Impactful Moments and Speakers

In our upcoming articles, we are going to share each of Charlotte, Caleb, and Chloe’s experience and summary of the conference. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you all some of the people they were inspired by:

• • Alyssa Morse: Supporting a sibling with mental illness: Young carers’ priorities for support services and research.
  • Amanda Tattersall: Making Change and Mental Illness – reimagining how we make a difference from the inside out
  • Gabriel Leeves: Breaking the stereotype – The role of intersectionality in identifying ‘carers’ and facilitating equitable access
  • Kim Huynh: Self-Advocacy Learnings from a Carer: Why do I care? And how do I do it
  • Mary O’Hagan: Keynote presentation
  • No Suppression group (NSW): No Suppression, a group of creatives at Macquarie Hospital finding common ground and celebrating difference
  • Paul Dziatkowiec: Finding Common Ground Against the Odds: Lessons from International Diplomacy and Peace Mediation
  • Shauna Winram & Ben Drysdale: Lived Experience in the Arts – Theatre & Music
  • Toby Walsh: Artificial Intelligence and (Mental) Health

What Was Missing: Reflections from a Young Person’s Perspective

While the conference was a step forward in youth mental health advocacy, several gaps were noted by the young attendees themselves. One area that felt underrepresented was the voice of young people itself:

“I only have one presentation I went to that was from a young person/carers perspective and I would’ve loved to have seen more presentations and speakers similar. It was hard to take a lot away from the keynote speakers and other delegates when they were speaking of the lived experience workforce, but not many actual young people talking about it. I would’ve liked to have seen more sessions catered to young people/carers run by young people.”  – Chloe

“A lot of the presentations centred around young people, LLE workforce, or carers spoke about us like we weren’t even in the room. It created a sense of imposter syndrome, but also greatly undermines the fact that young people or carers could have the necessary education and skills to attend, or would benefit from the conference.”  – Charlotte

Our conference representatives also noted that there were very few young people as presenters or even attendees, unless they were student volunteers (who don’t get to engage with the conference in the same way).

Additionally, there was a desire for more practical calls to actions: “whilst there were so many great presentations, there was limited prompting on how the findings/content presented could be utilised by the audience.”

Stay Tuned to Hear More from our Young Representatives POV on their TheMHS Conference Experience

The 2024 TheMHS Conference was a great opportunity for our young mental health advocates to lead, shape, and participate in the Mental Health sector. Stay tuned to hear their stories and experiences of the whole event! Be sure to follow us so you don’t miss out on hearing Charlotte, Chloe, and Caleb’s story.

To continue the conversation, share this article and join us in spreading awareness about the importance of youth voices in the mental health conversation. Together, we can create safe, creative, and inclusive spaces for brave conversations that enhance the mental health, wellbeing, and connectedness of children and young people!