Arafmi has been supporting families and other unpaid carers of people experiencing mental ill-health for almost 50 years and is now recognised as the peak body for unpaid mental health carers in Queensland. Arafmi's recently established lived experience policy and advocacy team has captured the experiences and needs of these families and carers in a statewide consultation report. The consultation findings show that mental health carers often feel excluded from treatment planning and decision-making regarding the people they support and the caring role can have significant impacts on carers' emotional, social, physical, mental health and financial wellbeing.

This presentation will share insights into the experiences of families and other carers and some of the many ways in which these experiences are informing action to bring about systemic change for mental health carers and the people they care for.

Three Key Learnings:
1. Families and other unpaid carers experience a number of challenges and impacts as a result of their role in supporting someone experiencing mental ill-health
2. Particular groups of mental health carers (such as those in rural areas, and those from LGBTQIA+ and CALD communities) experience some of these challenges more acutely
3. Arafmi is undertaking a number of initiatives in collaboration with other Queensland based services to begin to address some of these challenges and improve the systems that support mental health carers and the people they care for.