Yarra Mental Health Alliance

“The Yarra Mental Health Alliance fosters trust and honesty amongst its members and meetings provide a reflective safe space to share and learn about what is happening within the sector”

 What is the Yarra Mental Health Alliance?

The Yarra Mental Health Alliance (YMHA) is for organisations that are committed to improving outcomes for people with mental health issues living within or with links to the City of Yarra, Melbourne, through improved co-ordination and collaboration of service provision based on recovery principles.

The YMHA has brought together workers from across the City of Yarra clinical and community sectors since 2006.We operate on the principles and values of advocacy, activism, education and service.

Our monthly meetings provide a forum for communicating about current issues, identifying and acting on points of advocacy for our consumers, and supporting mental health service providers through information and peer support.  We also collaborate to develop submissions and resources, provide education sessions, and run events such as the ‘Out of the Office, Into the Street’ Mental Health Walking Tour through the streets and services of Fitzroy.

You can read more about our values and objectives in our Terms of Reference .

Membership & Structure

Organisations who have a presence at YMHA for 50% or more of the year’s meetings are considered members who abide by the member responsibilities. These include:

• Member agencies contribute to the aims and objectives of YMHA
• Promoting the values of YMHA activities, that are organised by members including but not limited to forums, publications and training events
• Members come in with a spirit of collaboration
• Activities of YMHA are communicated to within their own organisation
• A proxy to attend meetings may be nominated if need be

The Alliance has a steering group made up of at least 6 members nominated at the start of each year, to ensure the smooth running of the meetings, activities and working groups.

The 2021 Steering Group members are: 

Current Chair:

Kevan Myers: Nexus Dual Diagnosis Service

Minute Secretary:

Alan McCarthy: HeadSpace Collingwood

Wayne Gleeson: Launch Housing
Lee-Ann Boyle: NWMPHN
Nick Pace: Jesuit Social Services
Kris Drew: ACSO
Karen Ditty: St Vincent’s Mental Health
Mirella Rao: Nexus Dual Diagnosis Service

Meetings

The YMHA meets once a month. All organisations that provide services to people living within, or with links to, the City of Yarra are welcome. Details include:

Date: 1^st Tuesday of each month

Time: 9:30am – 11:00am

Venue: due to covid meetings currently held via zoom

If you’d like to attend the meetings, or have any other queries, send us an email at kevan.myers@svha.org.au

YMHA Resources

Yarra Mental Health Alliance Services

The YMHA created this map as part of a Services Walking Tour that was held for Mental Health Week 2018 to help familiarise practitioners with services available in the City of Yarra region.

YMHA Information Sharing and Confidentiality resource

This resource contains practice prompts that ask you to think about what information can and can’t be shared about a consumer. It is a reflective tool to guide your decision making and thinking. To share or not to share?