A national voice and membership body for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers

Built by Peer Workers, for Peer Workers

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About the Australian Association of Peer Workers

The Australian Association of Peer Workers (AAPW) is the national representative and membership body for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers, supporting peer work as a distinct professional practice grounded in lived experience.

Established in May 2026, the AAPW brings together the diverse experiences and collective power of the peer workforce to ensure peer work is embedded, valued and invested in across Australia’s mental health system.

The AAPW is built by peer workers, for peer workers, to strengthen our voice, advocate for our interests, and provide the resources and connections needed to navigate the sector and thrive in our roles. Through this work, the Association aims to advance recognition, respect and better outcomes for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers and their work across Australia.

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“A thriving mental health Lived Experience (Peer) workforce is a vital component of quality, recovery-focused mental health services.”

National Lived Experience Peer Workforce Development Guidelines. Introduction. National Mental Health Commission. (2021)

Becoming a member of the AAPW

Join a growing national community of peer workers and help shape the future of peer work in Australia. Membership provides access to practical support and resources, meaningful connection to a national community, and opportunities to strengthen our collective voice. Together, we use our lived expertise to advocate for better outcomes for peer workers, consumers, carers and kin.

Support

Access resources, guidance, and advocacy you need to thrive as a peer worker.

Connection

Come together to share and learn from peer workers across Australia.

Influence

Be part of a collective national voice, strengthening advocacy for peer workers and peer work.

Initially, membership to the AAPW will be free, allowing peer workers to experience the benefits before a paid membership structure is implemented in 2028.

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Key AAPW Initiatives and Projects

Developed by peer workers, for peer workers, these key initiatives and projects support our workforce and turn our collective voice into action.

Peer Workforce Advocacy

Advancing recognition, rights and working conditions for peer workers, amplifying peer worker perspectives and lived experience expertise, influencing policy, reform and the decisions that shape the future of peer work.

National Training Plan

Aligning and strengthening education and training pathways for peer workers, supporting best practice and increasing access to quality, lived experience training across the workforce.

Scope of Practice and Role Definition

Developing nationally consistent role definitions, practice approaches and core functions for peer workers, supporting greater role clarity and increasing awareness of peer worker roles across the mental health and suicide prevention system.

Supervision Framework

Developing a national supervision framework that supports quality peer supervision and promotes workforce wellbeing, psychosocial safety and sustainable peer work.

Career Pathway Resource

Developing nationally consistent guidance on roles, progression and career development, supporting clearer career pathways for peer workers across Australia.

National Workplace Standards

Developing national workplace standards that promote ethical, safe and effective employment of peer workers and support mentally and emotionally safe workplaces.

First Nations Peer Workforce Development Strategy

Embedding a First Nations Peer Workforce Development Strategy across all workstreams, supporting culturally safe First Nations-led approaches to workforce development and recognising the leadership and cultural authority of First Nations peoples.

Why the AAPW matters?

Peer workers share their experiences, insights and hopes for the future of peer work and the AAPW.

Family Carer Peer Worker, TAS

"What I'd like to see is that when we have a clinical team, if we do not have a consumer peer worker and a family carer peer worker sitting within it, it is automatically, glaringly seen as incomplete."

Consumer Peer Worker, VIC

"What it means to me to have a national association comes down to two words: recognition and respect... I'd hope that there's more awareness and understanding about peer work, not just in the mental health space, but in our communities, everywhere. If I tell a friend who works in IT that I'm a peer worker, they'd have no idea what I'm saying. But if I tell them someone's a psychiatrist, they'd know. People don't even know who we are."

Consumer Peer Worker, WA

"It marks us as a real profession. It will hopefully provide us with shared standards, what principles we work with, what we want to advocate for as a profession. It will send a message to other systems, workplaces and institutions that our work has value in its own right and is not cobbled together from what individuals want, but is a collective movement. And it's going to be incredibly helpful for peer workers to have a group they can look to for advice on the issues they're facing."

Suicide Prevention Peer Worker, SA

"What it means to me to have a national association is that we now have the opportunity to have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. Having a single source of truth for policies and positional papers would be hugely beneficial. It adds systemic support to people in these roles, but also to organisations, to have a place you can go for clear definitions, for guidance about scope of practice."

Consumer Peer Worker, ACT

"I hope the AAPW will help achieve recognition of our existence and our contribution. A clear status. A better understanding of what we go through, and direction for a system that protects and supports peer workers, without restraining empathy, and that guarantees a baseline standard of living regardless of weekly working hours."

Consumer Peer Worker, QLD

"Professionalisation doesn't mean we lose who we are as peers or lose our values. What we do is develop what professional means for us, and that creates scaffolding for us to be a very embedded, integrated and safe workforce. If you can get professionalism to coexist with that uniqueness that is peer work, then it's going to be gold. We can't replicate what other disciplines have done because we're not the same."

Family Carer Peer Worker, NSW

"What I hope the Association will achieve is having a national consistency around the structure, the scope, and the framework for what peer work is about. Once we have that consistency, it's going to make services more understanding of what peer workers do and don't do. And promote that respect for us as a discipline."

News and Updates

Stay informed and connected with news and updates about the peer workforce and AAPW.

E-Newsletter

E-Newsletter 5th Edition

Subject: Membership opening in August, find us at The MHS, hear voices from the peer workforce, s...

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E-Newsletter

E-Newsletter 4th Edition

Subject: Make lived experience count in the 2026 Census Welcome to all new subscribers. In this e...

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E-Newsletter

E-Newsletter 3rd Edition

Subject: Join an Online Information Session, Apply to Join the Team and More! To the growing AAPW...

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A national peer-led membership body, built by peer workers, for peer workers.

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