The Carer Support Team continues to work hard to deliver services to Mental Health Carers across Queensland. There are some changes to our services from next month.

Our counselling program is coming to an end due to necessary changes resulting from funding requirements. We would like to thank the wonderful Dan Davies for his work in this space and also thank all the Mental Health Carers who utilised the service. We hope you found it helpful.

We are excited to offer a new service, Individual 1:1 Support for Carers, available five days per week, either via phone, Zoom or in person with one of the Carer Support Team members.

If, after the initial 1:1 support you feel you need further support via counselling, please contact the team on 3254 1881 or carersupport@arafmi.com.au.and we will be happy to go through the different options with you and refer you to the most suitable service.

As Queensland’s lead organisation in supporting and advocating on behalf of families, carers and kin of people impacted by mental illness, Arafmi Ltd celebrates the news that two new lived experience national peak bodies will be established.

We look forward to supporting the development of the peaks and establishing long term, collaborative relationships with both.

This National Survey is a part of the NHMRC funded ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research, research translation roadmap (see link to some more details on their digital platform) with collaboration and ethics approval from the centres partner organisation, the PRATO International Research Collaborative ( and Monash University. It aims to reach a better collective understanding of what outcomes should be measured in research involving families where a parent experiences mental illness (FaPMI) and achieving agreement regarding what the important outcomes are for health and social care related interventions and research involving families where a parent experiences a mental ill-health and on the available methods to measure those outcomes.

They are seeking the following individuals to complete the survey:

• Young people who are children (age 16+) of parents with mental ill-healt
• Parents who have mental ill-health
• Family members involved in helping children with parents with mental ill- health
• Partners of individuals who have experienced mental ill-health 

It’s time for another Arafmi retreat! From Monday, 20 March to Wednesday, 22 March Arafmi is hosting a carer retreat at the Sandstone Point Holiday resort. 

This retreat is specifically for unpaid mental health carers to take a break from their caring role. At this point we will be taking Expressions of Interest only. Click on the link below to complete your registration.

Please note that an EOI doesn’t guarantee a space. All carers will be advised if they are successful or unsuccessful in gaining a spot. EOI’s close at 9.00 am, 17 February 2023. 

February Book Choice

This month our carers will be reading The  Fatal Dance by Berndt Sellheim.

A dizzingly intelligent and compulsive work of fiction from an outstanding new Australian writer.

Redmond Campbell's luck has just taken a turn for the worse. His dog's dead, his wife, Bea, has landed in prison, and he has to look after Bea's sister, Lori - a wildly disinhibited woman with Huntington's disease - who hates him. And Redmond's nephew, Mada, a PhD student searching for a cure for the disease that's killing his mother, doesn't give Red the respect he deserves. But Red is about to change all that. He's got plans to become Sydney's leading property agent and he's about to make a connection that will line him up a killing. It's legal too. Well, almost. What matters is that Red has a whiff of success, and he's damn sure everything's about to come up roses.

Funny and moving, profound and profane, both an intimate family drama and an incisive parable of capitalism and collapse, this is an anarchic, joy-filled and ribald read from one of Australia's most exciting authors. A novel about the dance of the body through life, it is a story brimming with sting, hope, and gratitude for a world that is equal parts cruel and kind.

The Carer Support Team are introducing a Craft and Connect group beginning on Tuesday, 21 February. This activity is specifically for unpaid mental health carers to provide them a brief opportunity for time away from their caring role.

When: Third Tuesday of every month
Time: 9:30am - 11:30am
Where: Arafmi Head Office, 6 Ambleside Street, West End

To learn more about this group, please contact us at carersupport@arafmi.com.au or call 3254 1881.

We were honoured to have been nominated in the 2022 Queensland Community Achievement Awards. The QCAA celebrate those making a positive difference in the community.

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