2026 Stigma and
Discrimination
Reduction Symposium
and Roundtable
Registration
In partnership with the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, the National Mental Health Commission is supporting a Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Symposium to be held in September 2026. The Symposium will convene diverse perspectives to explore the personal, social and systemic impacts of stigma and discrimination and current perspectives on solutions and priorities.
The 2026 National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Symposium will convene diverse perspectives from across Australia, including people with lived and living experience of mental health problems, carers, family members, and kin, First Nations leaders and communities, community organisations, researchers, service providers, policy makers, advocates, and government representatives.
Across the day, participants will actively consider how stigma and discrimination are experienced in everyday life, what evidence-based solutions are available, and what priorities for positive change should be.
The Symposium is funded by the National Mental Health Commission and attendance is free of charge. Complimentary refreshments will be provided throughout the day.
As places are limited, registrations may be managed to ensure broad representation across stakeholder groups and geographic locations.
Eligibility
Registration is open to individuals who:
-
are 18 years of age or older; and
-
have an interest in reducing mental illness-related stigma and discrimination.
All attendees will be invited to participate in the research undertaken during the Symposium to collect participants’ views. Participation in the research is entirely voluntary and will be explained separately before the Symposium commences. Registering for the symposium does not require participation in research.
Stakeholder Representation
To help achieve broad and balanced representation across the symposium, we ask all registrants to answer the following questions.
The information collected in this section is used solely for administering registrations, monitoring stakeholder representation and allocating places at the symposium. It is not collected for research purposes.
This information will only be accessible in raw form to the 2026 Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Symposium registrations organising team of Dr Chris Groot (Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne) and JT. Production Management, for the purposes described above. The information will be shared with the Symposium Steering Committee in de-identified and aggregated form to assist with monitoring and balancing of ticket registrations.