This is a heading for a text section

Engage a consumer representative

The Alliance encourages mental health sector organisations to ensure the voices of consumers are included in their work.

You can involve consumer representatives in a range of activities, ranging from ongoing committee work to one off workshops.

Using our National Consumer Representative Register and networks we can advertise and help you select people with a consumer lived experience that best match the roles you have available.

We can also support you during the consumer representative placement with any questions or queries you may have, to help ensure the placement is successful. We offer this same support to the consumer representative, as well as EAP.

To assist in having a successful outcome, we encourage organisations to consider:

Providing a minimum of four weeks for us to advertise, secure and support a consumer representative to participate in your work

Introducing the consumer representative to key staff and giving them a verbal briefing on the work involved prior to their first meeting.

Offering a kind and considerate thank you to the consumer representative for their efforts and participation.

For further information about how to best support the inclusion of consumer representatives, please see the resources available via the Consumer Heath Forum of Australia, here (hyperlink to Resources for Consumer Engagement Professionals | CHF)

Remuneration

The Alliance requires organisations that engage consumer representatives to pay a direct sitting fee, in line with the remuneration rates specified via the Commonwealth Remunerations Tribunal for part-time office holders.

See folder called Finalised Policies and link to file called: paid-participation-policy.docx

The current minimum rate for 2026-27 is:

$95.20 for an hour, minimum of two hours payment for attending a meeting – note that reading and preparation time is not paid.
$476 for a day, being a maximum of 5 hours (unless the committee/authority is specified in page 6, Table 4A- Daily Fees.

Consumers should also have also reasonable travel and accommodation expenses covered in advance or be reimbursed.

Please note that to support the sustainability for this Consumer Representation Service through its facilitators - Mental Health Lived Experience Tasmania, organisations requesting a consumer representative will be charged a fee that is 30% (plus GST) in addition to the consumer representative remuneration rate. This assists in covering the administration of the National Mental Health Consumer Representative Register and the ongoing support to consumer representative placements and those organisations they are placed with, as well as the related insurance and EAP.

Request form

To request a consumer representative for your work, please download and fill in this request form and email it to us at nationalregister@mhlet.org.au. Please feel free to provide any extra attachments that will help us to understand the type of consumer representative you need and the work they will be involved in.

If you have any queries about the consumer representative service, please contact us at nationalregister@mhlet.org.au.

Apply now