Celebrating 20 Years of CoMHWA
Dear CoMHWA members and supporters,
We are 20 years old!!!
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who attended our recent 20th Year Celebration night. 20 years of incorporation is a huge milestone in our history, and the history of the consumer movement in WA. On the night we paused and took a moment to look back at what we have achieved over these years, the ground we’ve covered, the struggles we have faced and the wins we have celebrated.
We were honoured to have both founding and current members join us on the night, many of whom also contributed to our commemorative booklet. We reflected on the early days as WAMIAC and then as CoMHWA; our first meetings held in a coffee shop, protesting on the steps of Parliament and operating on a shoestring budget and volunteer labour.
One of the themes that has run through every chapter of our history is that we have been, and always will be, 100% Peer-staffed and led. We will never forget where we came from, and we will never be silenced.
Special thanks go to our speakers on the night; Robyn Collard and Tryse Rioli for a powerful Welcome to Country; Lyn Mahboub for a passionate Recognition of Lived Experience; and Brian Wooller for his reflections on the last 20 years and his dedication to our organisation.
Darren Munday, CEO
Download our 20 year booklet here
If you would like a physical copy of the booklet, please send your mailing address to admin@comhwa.org.au
CoMHWA recognised in Parliament
We were thrilled to also be recognised in Parliament for our 20th anniversary. The Honourable Meredith Hammat MLA, Minister for Health and Mental Health, rose in Parliament to give a ministerial statement acknowledging our work over the years and our impact on the WA mental health sector.
To be recognised by the Minister is a testament to the vision of our founders and a credit to all staff and Board members who have made us what we are today.
I’d like to thank the Minister for her very kind words and I very much look forward to working with her, and her office, over the coming years to continue to transform the system, built on the knowledge and wisdom of consumers.
Darren Munday, CEO
CoMHWA’s Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030
At the 20 Year Celebration, we didn’t just reflect on the past – we looked into the future and launched our next Strategic Plan. This is a plan that honours the past, while also setting the course for the next five years, and is built on four strategic pillars:
- KNOW – We know where we come from and what we stand for.
- LIVE – We are consumers walking alongside others with lived experience and the allies who walk with us.
- SPEAK – We will deliver our message with clarity, strength, and purpose to make real and lasting change.
- GROW – To transform the system, we will build capacity, create opportunities, and leverage influence to embed lived experience expertise at every level.
This plan is not just a document, but our commitment: it names our purpose, lives our ethos, speaks our truth and grows our influence. We are incredibly proud to share this with our wider membership and allies.
3,000 CoMHWA members!
We are pleased to announce that we recently reached a huge milestone: 3,000 members! Thank you to everyone who makes up CoMHWA’s powerful lived experience consumer community.
It was only 18 months ago that we reached 2,000 members so to double our membership in that time is a huge achievement. The more members we have, the more our voices are amplified and listened to. We will never stop advocating for change for you all.
We would like to thank everyone who has been a part of CoMHWA’s story so far. Our advocacy, training, service navigation, engagement and support programs have connected us with consumers, stakeholders and allies across WA and more recently, the rest of Australia.
We encourage you to spread the word about CoMHWA membership. It’s free for individuals with a lived experience of mental health challenges and heavily subsidised for organisations and associates. Help us to ensure lived experience is as valued as professional experience and there is lived experience leadership at every level.
CoMHWA Staff Reflections
As CoMHWA celebrates 20 years of incorporation, we have been collecting stories from those impacted by our work. Below are a few reflections from CoMHWA staff members who have journeyed alongside the organisation.
“I started working at CoMHWA three and a half years ago, originally to write some conference papers while I worked retail part-time. I had just left my job as a casual lecturer and research assistant due to a mental health crisis, and felt totally unsure of my future. I wasn’t confident I could work full time again, let alone in a job that held purpose and meaning for me. I’m immensely grateful to the people who helped create, build and sustain CoMHWA and I feel very lucky to be part of work that challenges harmful assumptions about mental health, recovery and what a good life looks like.”
“At CoMHWA, I feel stretched in the best way. The work challenges me, connects me, and reminds me I’m part of a movement that matters. I’m proud to be here, in a place that matches my values, recognises my lived experience for the knowledge it brings, and is full of welcoming, validating humans. It gives me hope to be surrounded by people pushing for change, with peer values at the heart.”
“CoMHWA has been a part of my life for more than half a decade now and I feel so lucky to have discovered this organisation at such a formative part of my life. I am so grateful to have been introduced to the Lived Experience and Consumer movement through CoMHWA, to have learnt from my Peers and to have been given the space to work in alignment with my values – I feel it has really shaped the person who I have become!”
“Having worked at CoMHWA for almost 10 years now, I have seen the organisation grow and achieve so much. There were five staff when I started and we worked out of the small Cannington office. Now working with almost 40 staff, across three offices and two training spaces, not only has the organisation grown in size, but the work we continue to do is more meaningful than ever, ensuring the voices of people with lived experience are front and centre in decision making, and continue to be heard and acted upon. I feel very fortunate to belong to an organisation like this and to have worked with people who I now consider life long friends.”
20 Year Celebration Photo Gallery
