Building a Strong, Sustainable Peer Workforce to Support Mental Health in Regional Australia

Background: In regional Australia, distance and workforce shortages make it difficult for people to access mental health support. Peer work uses people’s own lived experience to support others, offering a practical, community-based alternative that draws on local communities’ existing strengths and wisdom. To succeed, peer work must move from relying on individual resilience to building system-level resilience, where structures, recognition, and collaboration across organisations sustain the workforce. In South Eastern NSW peer work is delivered as part of an integrated mental health workforce improving outcomes for consumers.

South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network (SENSW PHN) leads one of Australia’s most comprehensive lived experience workforce initiatives. In 2025, this work was recognised at The Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand, receiving a Highly Commended award for excellence in co-design. Judges described the program as “excellent,” acknowledging its genuine collaboration with peer workers and local organisations.

 

Approach: The initiative positions peer work as a core workforce model, supported by three key components:

1. The Peer Framework was co-designed with 70 peer workers, Aboriginal community organisations and mental health service providers. It provides a shared regional plan for growing and supporting the peer workforce and bridges the gap between peer workers, providers, clinicians, and system leaders. It is embedded in commissioned service contracts to drive accountability and consistent implementation.
2. Regional Peer Networks connect peer workers across public mental health, community, Aboriginal and private sectors, as well as students. They create spaces for co-reflection, shared learning, and professional identity, especially important in rural areas where peers often work in isolation.
3. A focus on Capability and Capacity Building involved whole-of-workforce training through Intentional Peer Support (IPS), an internationally recognised program grounded in relationships, mutuality, and hope.

 

 

 

Impact

Since launching in 2021:

• The regional peer workforce has grown from 70 to over 200.
• Peer workers now represent 18% of our PHN-funded, integrated mental health workforce, up from 8%.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers receiving peer support increased from 3.5% to 20%.
• Launched South Eastern NSW’s first Peer Work Census-a landmark initiative profiling the workforce, benchmarking growth and building an evidence base for peer work in rural contexts.
• Whole-of-workforce training improved the integration and utilisation of Peer roles.
• Produced the “Peers at the Table” podcast-an educational resource to help providers integrate Peer Work principles and ways of working into their service models.
• Developed a new “Deadly Network” for First Nations peer workers that provides culturally safe space for connection, mentoring, and shared learning.

Implications:

This initiative demonstrates how regional systems can embed peer work as a sustainable, community-driven, and integrated workforce model. Success depends on co-design, cross-sector partnerships, ongoing training, and shared governance.

For international delegates, this model shows how regional systems can drive national change by investing in people, relationships, and lived experience leadership.

Peer work in South Eastern NSW now stands as an Australian example of excellence-built with community, sustained by collaboration, and recognised internationally for its innovation and impact