Consumers and carers advising a national multicultural mental health service say they've been sidelined by a new federal service provider.
Mental Health Australia says it was brought in to fix a good program that went off track.
As Stefan Armbruster reports, the dispute comes after the federal government announced reform of the mental health sector with a focus on the needs of individuals and at-risk groups.
Chandi Powell overcame debilitating mental health issues a decade ago and now works to help others.
As a consumer with lived experience she was part of the working group that advised the only national program improving mental health services for multicultural communities.
Now Ms Powell says her role may disappear.
"Without our voice, without our strength this project is meaningless. It's very important for us to work together. They haven't informed anything to us. They say we are still existing staff, we are still working. But we haven't signed any contract. According to them we are still working."
The Mental Health in Multicultural Australia project, commonly known as MHiMA, was highly commended by the National Mental Health Commission review earlier this year.
MHiMA provides a national framework for mental health service providers to engage appropriately with people from non-English speaking backgrounds and also collect data on their needs.
The project also had governance problems, so the federal government handed control and funding to Mental Health Australia -- the country's peak body, headed by Frank Quinlan.
"Consumers and carers have not been disengaged at any time. They've, I suspect, been the victims of contractural arrangements between the Department of Health and the previous consortium arrangement, and then ourselves."
Australia spends ten billion dollars a year on mental health.
Last week the federal government announced a redesign, saying "Reform must build programs and pathways around individual consumers, particularly subgroups," including "people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds."
Damir Trokic, a carer for his aged and mentally ill parents from Bosnia, was also a working group member advising MHiMA, and has concerns about the new operator.
"Especially, they openly say they don't have the expertise in the multicultural mental health area -- so I'm not sure what to expect from them."
A point acknowledged by Mental Health Australia's head Frank Quinlan.
We recognise that's a skill set we will have to bring into the organisation and we hope by engaging closely with multicultural organisations we can have that expertise at the time at all stages of the project. We are actually keen to secure the future of this project. The project was at risk of folding in June. The Department of Heatlh asked Mental Health Australia to take over the governance and management of the project. We're actually expanding, filling vacancies in the membership of the consumer-carer working group and looking to expand their influence on the project."
Carers and consumers have asked the health minister to intervene.
The project is currently funded until June next year, and consumers and carers hope to soon find out where they stand.
