Co-creating public mental health services that centre community voice, uphold dignity, and enable trust.
In this seminar, Tharindu Jayadeva and Lauren Wraight explore relational co-design and participation as core practices in systems change — not just strategies for service improvement, but social justice tools for reshaping how we work, relate, and build futures together.
Presenters
- Tharindu Jayadeva (he/him), Lived/Living Experience Participation Lead, Alfred Mental and Addiction Health
- Lauren Wraight (she/they), Consumer Consultant, Strategy and Planning, Alfred Mental and Addiction Health
Drawing from lived experience leadership and peer-informed practice, this session will explore how co-design can be a force for cultural and organisational transformation when grounded in relationships, integrity, and equity.
Lauren and Tharindu will share insights from their work building a Co-Design Collaborative and lived experience participation frameworks in Victoria's public mental health sector, inviting reflection on civic participation, relational ethics, and the healing potential of community-driven change. The seminar will also offer reflections on alternative models to traditional advisory structures for building co-owned, regenerative, and trauma-responsive service cultures.
Together, we’ll ask: What does it take to create services where people feel safe, seen, and involved in decisions that affect them? How do we move beyond extractive participation into relationships of mutual accountability and care? And how can we, as a workforce across disciplines and perspectives, begin to practice the futures we long for – ones marked by hope, dignity, and collective repair?
VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.
- Where: Online via Zoom – details to be sent to registrants in advance
- Cost: Free
- Bookings: essential. Spaces are limited. To secure a place, please register online via VTMH
MORE:
Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH)
Address: St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Level 1, Bolte Wing, 14 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Address: St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Level 1, Bolte Wing, 14 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Tel: (03) 9231 3300
VTMH acknowledges it is located on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We know this land has history, custodians and stories spanning tens of thousands of years. We celebrate and recognise the First Peoples’ continuing connection to the land and water, and pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging.
In a spirit of reconciliation, we commit to walking the journey of learning and healing together.