The Forgotten Frontline: Families and Carers Holding Australia’s Mental Health System Together
Tracks
Prince Room and Virtual via OnAIR
| Monday, March 2, 2026 |
| 11:35 AM - 12:05 PM |
| Prince Room |
Overview
De Backman-Hoyle, Mental Health Carers Australia
Details
Three Key Learnings:
Families and carers are the largest frontline workforce in mental health, yet remain under-recognised and unsupported. Ignoring this unpaid workforce creates systemic risks for individuals, services, and the sustainability of the wider system. Valuing and resourcing families as genuine partners could transform outcomes for both the professional workforce and the people they support.
Families and carers are the largest frontline workforce in mental health, yet remain under-recognised and unsupported. Ignoring this unpaid workforce creates systemic risks for individuals, services, and the sustainability of the wider system. Valuing and resourcing families as genuine partners could transform outcomes for both the professional workforce and the people they support.
Speaker
Ms De Backman-Hoyle
National Manager Community Engagement
Mental Health Carers Australia
The Forgotten Frontline: Families and Carers Holding Australia’s Mental Health System Together
Presentation Overview
When we talk about the frontline mental health workforce, the focus is usually on paid professionals — police, ambulance, defence force and perhaps then clinicians, peer workers, and support staff. Yet the largest frontline workforce in Australia is unpaid: mental health families, carers, and kin. Every day, hundreds of thousands of Australians are managing crises, medications, and emotional distress, holding together a fractured system that is not designed with them in mind.
This presentation challenges assumptions about who we mean when we say “frontline.” It asks: what if the same recognition, training, and support invested in professional workforces were extended to families and carers? How much stronger, safer, and more sustainable would our system be if we acknowledged the billions in unpaid hours already contributed?
Drawing on national advocacy, lived experience as a carer, and economic evidence, this session will provoke discussion about the invisible costs of overlooking this workforce. It will highlight systemic risks — burnout, financial collapse, intergenerational trauma — and reframe families and carers as indispensable allies in frontline mental health responses.
This presentation challenges assumptions about who we mean when we say “frontline.” It asks: what if the same recognition, training, and support invested in professional workforces were extended to families and carers? How much stronger, safer, and more sustainable would our system be if we acknowledged the billions in unpaid hours already contributed?
Drawing on national advocacy, lived experience as a carer, and economic evidence, this session will provoke discussion about the invisible costs of overlooking this workforce. It will highlight systemic risks — burnout, financial collapse, intergenerational trauma — and reframe families and carers as indispensable allies in frontline mental health responses.
Biography
De Backman-Hoyle is the National Manager of Community Engagement at Mental Health Carers Australia, the national peak body for families, carers, and kin. With extensive experience in systemic advocacy and organisational development, De has influenced major national reforms by embedding lived experience perspectives into policy. Known for her dynamic facilitation and capacity to engage audiences, De brings insights from both personal and professional lived experience. Her advocacy is driven by the conviction that families and carers are the forgotten frontline the invisible backbone of Australia’s mental health system and deserve recognition, resourcing, and genuine partnership in reform.
