Consumer Register 

The BEING Consumer Register is for mental health consumers and people with personal lived experience of mental health challenges who want to use their lived experience to contribute towards improving the mental health system and mental health services.

The Consumer Register is used to connect consumers with organisations that wish to include consumers in their work e.g. government departments, non-profit organisations, and the media.  

The reasons they may want a consumer representative are varied, and include: 

• Focus groups 

• Consultations 

• Codesign, coproduction, cocreation 

• Committee meetings 

• Speakers at an event 

• Speakers for a media story 

When BEING is contacted about an opportunity, BEING will search the Consumer Register to find people who are qualified and interested in participating, and will facilitate introductions between the requesting organisation and the consumer/s. 

In return, BEING expects that organisations looking to engage with consumers follow minimum standards, as outlined in our Engagement Guidelines. This includes a requirement for consumers to be paid for their time (unless they are participating as part of their job).  

How the Consumer Register works  

1. An organisation reaches out to BEING at info@being.org.au with a request for a consumer representative. 
2. BEING assesses the request against the Engagement Guidelines. 
3. BEING reaches out to consumers on the Consumer Register inviting them to apply for the opportunity. 
4. BEING selects a consumer/s that best suit the opportunity according to their interests, lived experiences, and prior committee experience (if relevant), and provides their details to the organisation. 
5. The organisation reaches out to the consumer/s and arranges any logistics including payments, directly with the consumer.
6. BEING will invoice the organisation an administration fee. There is an exemption for Mental Health Branch at NSW Health. 

Who can join the Consumer Register 

To be eligible to join the Consumer Register, a person must: 

1. Be a current member of BEING – Mental Health Consumers (if you are not a member, you can sign up here. You must be 18 years of age or older); AND
   
2. Have a current working knowledge of governance by either: 

• Being an active member on a mental health committee/s or working group/s for the past five consecutive years (or 18 months if applying for a youth representative role). This must be documented on your CV or LinkedIn profile (BEING may contact the Chairperson/s of those committees/working groups to discuss your involvement).
  
  OR  

• Having completed the following courses on BEING’s e-learning hub:  

1. Mental Health Advocacy (free) 
2. Foundations of Co-Design (paid) 
3. Foundations of Effective Meetings (paid) 
4. Foundations of Committee Work (paid) 

Apply to be on the Consumer Register 

Click the button below to submit your application to be on the Consumer Register. Your application will be reviewed, and we will be in touch.