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    About Us

    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 discipline grounded in lived experience.

    Mental health and suicide prevention peer workers support people through some of life's most challenging experiences. This work is skilled, purposeful and increasingly recognised as an essential part of a high-quality mental health system. To thrive, peer workers need meaningful professional support, opportunities for connection, and a strong national voice.

    Established in May 2026, the AAPW was created to meet that need.

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    Our Team

    The AAPW employs five peer workers in the following roles to support our members, advocacy and projects.

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    The General Manager leads the AAPW and guides the growth and development of a strong, sustainable and peer-led national association for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers. The position oversees the delivery of the Association's priorities, partnerships and national initiatives, advancing recognition, respect and workplace rights for peer workers across Australia.

    General Manager

    Oversees member engagement and advocacy across the AAPW, ensuring peer workers have access to meaningful opportunities for support, connection and participation. The Member Services and Advocacy Lead brings together insights from members and the broader peer workforce to strengthen the Association's advocacy and inform its priorities and strategic direction.Member Services and Advocacy Lead

    Leads the development of the AAPW's First Nations Peer Workforce Strategy and ensures Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer workers are meaningfully represented, included and supported across the Association's work. The First Nations Lead works in partnership with First Nations peer workers, lived experience organisations and communities to co-design culturally grounded approaches to peer workforce development.First Nations Lead

    First Nations Lead

    Shapes the development of nationally consistent practice frameworks that support quality, integrity and role clarity across mental health and suicide prevention peer work. The Practice Standards Lead oversees the co-design of the National Peer Work Scope of Practice, Role Definitions and Supervision Framework, ensuring the voices of peer workers, consumers and carers are at the centre of every decision.Practice Standards Lead

    Practice Standards Lead

    Drives initiatives that strengthen safe, sustainable and clearly defined employment pathways for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers. The Workplace Standards Lead manages the co-design of National Workplace Safety Standards, a National Training Plan and a Career Pathway Resource, ensuring this work is practical, culturally safe and grounded in lived-experience values.Workplace Standards Lead

    Workplace Standards Lead

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    Our Team

    The AAPW employs five peer workers in the following roles to support our members, advocacy and projects.

    General Manager

    The General Manager leads the AAPW and guides the growth and development of a strong, sustainable and peer-led national association for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers. The position oversees the delivery of the Association's priorities, partnerships and national initiatives, advancing recognition, respect and workplace rights for peer workers across Australia.

    Member Services and Advocacy Lead

    Oversees member engagement and advocacy across the AAPW, ensuring peer workers have access to meaningful opportunities for support, connection and participation. The Member Services and Advocacy Lead brings together insights from members and the broader peer workforce to strengthen the Association's advocacy and inform its priorities and strategic direction.

    First Nations Lead

    Leads the development of the AAPW's First Nations Peer Workforce Strategy and ensures Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer workers are meaningfully represented, included and supported across the Association's work. The First Nations Lead works in partnership with First Nations peer workers, lived experience organisations and communities to co-design culturally grounded approaches to peer workforce development.

    Practice Standards Lead

    Shapes the development of nationally consistent practice frameworks that support quality, integrity and role clarity across mental health and suicide prevention peer work. The Practice Standards Lead oversees the co-design of the National Peer Work Scope of Practice, Role Definitions and Supervision Framework, ensuring the voices of peer workers, consumers and carers are at the centre of every decision.

    Workplace Standards Lead

    Drives initiatives that strengthen safe, sustainable and clearly defined employment pathways for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers. The Workplace Standards Lead manages the co-design of National Workplace Safety Standards, a National Training Plan and a Career Pathway Resource, ensuring this work is practical, culturally safe and grounded in lived-experience values.

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    Our Purpose

    Built by peer workers, for peer workers, the Association brings together the diverse experiences and collective strength of the peer workforce to support, connect and represent peer workers across Australia.

    As both a professional association and a community of belonging, the AAPW provides resources, professional development, advocacy and opportunities for peer workers to connect, learn and lead. Guided by the values of mutuality, self-determination, human rights and peer leadership, we work to strengthen the peer workforce while advancing recognition, respect and workplace rights across Australia's mental health and suicide prevention systems.

    We are working towards a future where peer work is embedded, valued and invested in across Australia's mental health and suicide prevention systems. When peer workers are recognised, supported and empowered to thrive, the people, communities and systems they work alongside are stronger too.

    Our Purpose – Collaborative Planning and Support at Home Our Purpose – Welcoming Portrait of a Peer Worker Our Purpose – Sharing a Meal and Laughter Together Our Purpose – Active Outdoor Companionship and Wellbeing rotating-dot rotating-dot
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    What we do

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

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    USP heading

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

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    USP heading

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

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    USP heading

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

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    USP heading

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

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

    What Peer Work Means to Us

    Peer workers share their experiences, inspiration, and insights about the power of peer work. 

     

    Suicide Prevention Peer Worker, NSW

    "The difference peer work makes, just in relation to suicide prevention specifically, I call it the golden thread or golden connection. It's just that lived experience. Having somebody to speak to that you know has experienced similar things, and you're not having to explain experiences because they actually get it."

    Consumer Peer Worker, TAS

    "Helping people to learn about themselves, to accept themselves, to find out their strengths, to learn their potential, and to have hope for the future. Watching people start to reach their potential, that's what I love about peer work, that's what's so rewarding, and I'll learn from them as well, continue to learn from other people. And that's helped me as well in my own recovery, too."

    Consumer Peer Worker, QLD

    "When people engage with someone who has been through something similar, it innately gives hope. That was my first experience of peer work. I was like, wow, this person has a job and they actually help people. I believe in this program because if she can do it, then maybe I can too. I just think that's really powerful, and that's a unique property of peer work that can't be replicated in other professions."

    Family Carer Peer Worker, TAS

    Peer work really just brings that slowing down, the real human connection. And that actually saves lives. It saves families' lives as well as consumers' lives."

    Consumer Peer Worker, WA

    "Peer work gives people hope because that judgement isn't there… People are given so much more freedom to normalise their feelings and find hope or recovery, whatever that looks like to them. Peer work means being understood by someone who has gone through it, and not being seen as a component of, or objectified by, the system."

    Family Carer Peer Worker, NSW

    "The principle of mutuality really speaks to me. What I most enjoy is introducing other carers to a different way of promoting recovery, through that walking alongside, that mutuality pathway, rather than telling people what to do."

    Suicide Prevention Peer Worker, SA

    "The difference peer work makes is that it helps people to feel seen, heard and understood in ways that other professions might have to work a lot harder at. If you're going to be lost in a forest without a map, isn't it better to be lost with company who might have been there beforehand? You can meet people that feel overwhelmed and lost and alone in all sorts of ways, and you can sort of go, let's just figure it out together."

    Consumer Peer Worker, ACT

    "Peer workers can build trust very fast; people open up and feel safe. The human connection that's permitted in peer work isn't always permitted elsewhere. Sharing food is okay, sitting together is okay."

    Consumer Peer Worker, VIC

    "The difference peer work made in my life was a sense of belongingness and relativity. I am an immigrant, I come from a completely different culture, and my family and friends from back home don't understand mental health or my experiences. Engaging with a peer worker provided me with that sense of belongingness, acknowledgement and validation that I'm not alone. What I'm experiencing is not my fault. It's part and parcel of life and anyone can experience those things."

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    Frequently Asked Questions

    Why does the AAPW exist?

    Peer workers asked Government for a strong national body that protects the fidelity of peer work, supports safe workplaces, and gives the peer workforce a united voice in national reform. The Association has been established to achieve these goals.

    Who is leading the establishment?

    Peer workers will lead the Association. This will commence with a Leadership Team, all of whom will be peer workers. The Leadership Team will be headed by a General Manager, and include a designated First Nations position.

     The National Mental Health Consumer Alliance is facilitating establishment, in partnership with the Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre (IALEC) and Mental Health Carers Australia (MHCA).

    Is the Association peer-led?

    Yes. Leadership roles, governance design and membership structures are centred on peer workers. The AAPW Team will include consumers, family/carer/kin and suicide prevention peer workers. The goal is to establish a member-driven, democratic organisation.

    Who can become a member?

    Membership will be open to:

    • Current peer workers (permanent, casual, contract or consulting roles)

    • People studying to become peer workers

    • Former peer workers intending to return

    • Peer worker alumni

    We also have a “friends of” category. This enables allies who are not lived experience (peer) workers to participate in some areas of the organisation. Volunteers who are supporting peers will be able to join as friends.

    Does peer work include mental health family/carer/kin and suicide prevention roles?

    Yes. The Association includes:

    • Consumer peer workers

    • Family, carer and kin peer workers

    • Suicide prevention peer workers

    All are included within the lived experience (peer) workforces. The Association is open to people in mental health and suicide prevention lived experience (peer) roles across all sectors.

    Will there be an advice and referral service?

    Yes. A national advice and referral service is planned to support peer workers with concerns arising from their individual roles, and concerns about systemic issues facing peer workers more broadly. This will be available via a booking system for phone based or online appointments during set hours, once the Association becomes fully operational.

    How will governance work at the start?

    The Association will begin as a distinct business unit within the Alliance. A 100% peer worker Leadership Team will run day-to-day operations. Governance will transition through a staged pathway toward a member-elected model.

    When will the Association become fully independent?

     An independent sustainability assessment will be conducted during the grant period. A decision about becoming a stand-alone legal entity will follow that assessment and member input.

    How will peer workers shape the Association?

    Peer workers will be involved:

    • Working at the Association, in all positions

    • As members of the Association, including communicating with the Leadership Team about specific and emerging concerns impacting peer workers

    • In national co-design initiatives across Association work streams

    • In specialist advisory groups

    • As users of the advice and referral service

    • In governance, as these arrangements develop.

    Why doesn’t the Association include peer workers working from other lived and living experiences such as alcohol and other drugs, homeless health and family violence?

    We recognise that the establishment of the Australian Association of Peer Workers has generated important discussion across the broader lived and living experience and peer workforce, including concerns raised through a recent petition about inclusivity and representation. We acknowledge and respect the passion and advocacy underpinning these concerns.

    The current project is funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA) through a two-and-a-half-year grant specifically scoped to establish a national Association for mental health and suicide prevention peer workers. As a result, the initial remit, governance arrangements, and deliverables for the Association are required to align with the scope of the funded project.

    The Association also recognises the significant intersectionality across lived and living experience communities and the strong alignment in values, practice approaches, and systemic challenges shared across different peer workforces. Many peer workers hold multiple lived experiences and work across service systems and sectors.

    As the Australian Association of Peer Workers is established over the next two and a half years, there will be opportunities to continue listening, engaging with stakeholders, and exploring how the Association may evolve over time, including consideration of broader peer workforce inclusion and representation.

    How will First Nations peer workers be supported?

    A First Nations Peer Workforce Development Strategy will be embedded across all workstreams, with leadership and cultural authority supported through IALEC. A First Nations peer worker will be a member of the Leadership Team.  

    Will the Association help set workplace standards?

    The Association will develop a National Workplace Standards framework to promote ethical, safe and effective employment of peer workers across settings.  

    Will membership cost money?

    In the Association's first year, membership will be free. Over time, a sustainable membership model will be developed. Fees are expected to be affordable, with concessions available. The aim is accessibility and value.

    Why does this matter for peer workers?

    A national association strengthens the collective voice and leadership of peer workers. It supports safer workplaces, clearer career pathways, stronger professional identity, national recognition of lived expertise, and rights-based outcomes for consumers, and their families/carers/kin.

    How can I sign up to be a member?

    You can sign up and become a member of the Australian Association of Peer Workers right away. 

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    More questions? Contact us

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    Why the AAPW Matters?

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

    "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."

    Family Carer Peer Worker, TAS

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    Become a Member!

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

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