Updated 22 June

New this week: Great Lakes Mental Health Film Festival added to program highlights. Gala Dinner tickets now available ↗

Previously: Taimi Allan workshop confirmed · Amy Smith session added · Tim Daly session added

Save 20% EOFY pricing ends 30 June.Register now ↗

Hilton Sydney · 5–7 August 2026 · In-person + Virtual

Illuminating Hope,
Inclusion & Connection

Your guide to TheMHS Conference 2026 speakers, sessions, awards and everything you need to know in the lead up to August. At TheMHS Conference 2026 we return to the basics of human need, with a universal focus on hope, inclusion and connection.

Register in-person Register virtually

TheMHS Conference 2026 begins in

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5 August 2026 · Hilton Sydney

TheMHS Conference 2026 is happening now welcome to Sydney.

Featured speakers

A selection of speakers worth knowing before August

Browse program highlights →
TD
Tim Daly
This Is My Brave Australia
Creative
S36: The Great Lakes Mental Health Film Festival

Short films from around the world, real lived experience stories, and facilitated dialogue on how storytelling builds hope, belonging and recovery. One of the most distinctive sessions on the program.

Full details ↗
TA
Taimi Allan
Mental Health Commissioner for South Australia
Workshop
The BIAS Game an interactive workshop exploring personal bias

Not a lecture about bias but an experience of it. Taimi Allan's session puts you in the room with your own assumptions and asks what you'll do next.

Full details ↗
AS
Amy Smith
Kindred Consulting
Workshop
Trauma informed leadership caring for the workforce

Practical tools for leaders navigating a sector where the work itself can be traumatising. Amy Smith on building organisations that care for the people doing the caring.

Full details ↗

Sessions not to miss

A handful of picks from a packed program

See all program highlights →
Symposium
S03: Co-Production in Public Mental Health Services

Eight presenters. Clinicians, carer consultants, researchers and people with lived experience in the room together. What co-production actually looks like in practice.
Symposium
S19: Improbable Ideas Symposium

Ideas that do not need to be safe, evidence based or widely accepted. They just need to be visionary, coherent and open to challenge. Come ready to think differently.
Featured Symposium
S60: Demystifying Coronial Inquiries through Lived Experience and Human Rights

A coronial expert, a bereaved family member, a suicide attempt survivor, a psychiatrist and a consumer peak body asking how we learn to learn better from loss. Featuring the Victorian Coroner.
Workshop
S21: Storytelling with Purpose

Kim Borrowdale, 2024 Outstanding Contribution Award winner, on how to structure your story so it lands. Whether you present to stakeholders, advocate for change or share lived experience.

TheMHS Mental Health Service Awards

TheMHS Gala Dinner · Thursday 6 August · The Tea Room QVB

For 34 years the TheMHS Awards have recognised innovation, research excellence, lived experience leadership and best practice in mental health services across Australia and New Zealand. In 2026 we mark a milestone with the first ever TheMHS Gala Dinner, bringing the sector together to celebrate in style. The dinner is a separate ticket to your conference registration.

2026 nominees announced soon
Book Gala Dinner tickets About the Awards ↗

Partner with us

Nearly 900 tickets in, and counting. Partner with us and reach Australia and New Zealand's mental health sector: clinicians, researchers, carers and advocates.

Conference hall showing scale and energy of the event Flourish Australia sponsor stand at the conference Diverse group of conference attendees engaging at the event
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CPD accredited across multiple disciplines

In-person in Sydney plus selected sessions live streamed

800+ clinicians, carers, policymakers and researchers from across AU + NZ

Hilton Sydney · 5–7 August 2026 · Carer & Consumer Forum 4 August

Ready to join us in Sydney?

Save 20% with EOFY pricing, ends 30 June

Register in-person Register virtually + Gala Dinner