2026 Stigma and
Discrimination
Reduction Symposium
and Roundtable
Many Voices
The Symposium is designed so that diverse groups, individuals, and organisations can participate on as equal a footing as possible. Our work is to explicitly seek to reduce, not reproduce, inequities and discrimination.
Accordingly, the Symposium program has been shaped by a stakeholder consultation survey undertaken in May 2026 with people from across the mental health sector, including people with lived and living experience, family, kin, carers and other supporters, lived experience workers, researchers, clinical and non-clinical mental health sector staff, and government representatives.
The consultation identified strong support for a program organised around three core domains of impact: individuals and families, communities, and systems.
Reflecting this feedback, the Symposium will focus on key areas of life where stigma and discrimination are felt most directly in these areas, including relationships, education and employment, housing and community participation, physical and mental healthcare, legal, rights, and welfare systems.
One Mission
Our many voices will join around a shared mission.
Based on the stakeholder consultation survey findings and current evidence, the Symposium is designed to be participatory, collaborative, and action-oriented. Rather than a traditional conference format, the day will prioritise shared learning, discussion, reflection, and the development of practical priorities for change.
Participants will have opportunities to hear from diverse perspectives, contribute to discussions throughout the day, connect with others working toward stigma and discrimination reduction, and help identify opportunities for future collaboration.
The program will focus less on restating the problem of stigma and discrimination about mental health challenges and more on exploration of solutions, opportunities, and barriers to progress. Its aim is to support the development of a small set of clear, evidence-informed, and measurable priorities for change that can contribute to future national action.
About the Symposium
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 will recognise that stigma and discrimination do not affect everyone in the same way. Experiences are shaped by culture, identity, geography, age, disability, gender, sexual identity, socioeconomic position, and many other aspects of people’s lives. The program will foreground inclusion, equity, cultural safety, human rights, and the leadership of people with lived and living experience.
Who should attend?
The Symposium is for anyone committed to reducing stigma and discrimination about mental health challenges in Australia.
This includes but is not limited to people with lived and living experience of mental health challenges, carers, families, kin and supporters, First Nations people and communities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, young people, older people, LGBTQIA+ communities, people with disability, people living in regional, rural and remote areas, peer workers, advocates, community organisations, researchers, educators, clinicians, service leaders, policy makers, and representatives from government and non-government sectors.
What happens after the Symposium?
Insights and priorities raised during the Symposium will help inform a smaller, invitation-only Roundtable on Tuesday 15 September 2026.
The Roundtable will bring together invited participants to consider what was heard at the Symposium along with current evidence and key initiatives including the 2026 National Stigma and Discrimination Report Card. Roundtable participants will deliberate on areas of consensus, and support the development of practical priorities for future national action to reduce stigma and discrimination about mental health challenges.
In the months following the Symposium and Roundtable, insights and priorities identified through both events, combined with evidence and best practice, will be shaped into a final report for the National Mental Health Commission. The report will highlight a clear set of evidence-based recommendations for positive change.
All Symposium and Roundtable participants will receive an event summary report.
A note on language
The Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne and the National Mental Health Commission acknowledge that language surrounding mental health and suicide can be powerful, emotive, and at times contested. People make sense of their experiences in different ways, and there is no consensus on preferred terminology. The University and Commission are conscious to use terminology throughout the Symposium project that is respectful of those whose experiences are described and discussed, and that is well understood by participants.
We recognise that mental health is not always viewed through a diagnostic lens. When referring
to data, research and evidence at the symposium and in reporting, we will use the terminology,
definitions and language from those datasets and research sources. This is to ensure accuracy,
maintain the integrity of the findings, and avoid unintentionally misrepresenting the data.
We understand and acknowledge that individuals have different preferences for the ways in which they would like their mental health experiences described and thought about. We also acknowledge and respect that, in addition, family members, kin, carers, and other supporters may have alternative preferred terms for their experiences and ways to think about their identities and relationships. We invite participants in the 2026 Stigma and Discrimination Symposium to take part using the language that is preferential and most meaningful to them.
Support
Support is available if you or someone you care for is in need of assistance. For information on support go to: www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/find-support