World Mental Health Day 2026 profile: Kirsty Rosie

The theme for World Mental Health Day 2026 is ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change’. We invited Kirsty Rosie, RANZCP's Lived and Living Experience Senior Adviser (Carer) to reflect on the theme and her journey with the College including our Lived and Living Experience strategy. 

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your journey as a carer and lived experience adviser? 

My journey into lived experience work began through my experiences as a carer supporting people close to me through periods of mental health challenges. Those experiences gave me insight into both the strengths of our mental health system and the areas where carers can feel overlooked or unsupported. Over time, I became interested in how lived experience perspectives could help shape better services, policies and education. Today, I feel privileged to work alongside consumers, carers, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to help ensure these perspectives are heard and valued.  My work focuses on supporting meaningful consumer and carer participation across the College, including strategy, education, governance and service improvement initiatives.

2. What first led you to become involved in carer lived experience work, and what continues to motivate you in this work?

Like many whanau/family and carers, I didn't initially set out to become involved in advocacy or advisory work. My interest grew from recognising how important carers are in supporting recovery and wellbeing, while also seeing that their experiences and expertise are not always acknowledged.

What continues to motivate me is the opportunity to contribute to positive change. When carers are listened to, we gain valuable insights into how services are experienced not only by the person accessing care, but also by the people supporting them. Knowing that lived experience perspectives can influence education, policy, and practice keeps me engaged and hopeful about what can be achieved through collaboration.

3. What do you think psychiatrists and mental health services need to understand about the experiences and perspectives of carers?

I think one of the most important things for psychiatrists and mental health services to understand is that carers often have a unique perspective. We're there for the day-to-day reality, not just the appointments or times of crisis. We see the ups and downs, the strengths as well as the struggles, and we're often alongside someone through periods of crisis, recovery and ongoing wellbeing.

Through my own experience as a carer, I've learned that carers can hold valuable knowledge about what is happening in a person's life, what has worked before, and the supports that might help. Many carers want to contribute positively to care and recovery, while also respecting the rights, choices and privacy of the person they support.

I also think it's important to recognise that caring can be emotionally, practically and financially demanding. Carers often spend a lot of time supporting someone else, while navigating their own wellbeing, work, family, and other responsibilities.

One aspect of the carer experience that I think is often overlooked is the stigma and isolation that can come with supporting someone who experiences mental health challenges. Some carers find themselves unable to talk openly about what they are experiencing, or they encounter misunderstanding and judgement from others. That can be quite different from some other caring roles and can leave carers feeling invisible, despite the significant role they play.

Ultimately, I think mental health services achieve better outcomes when they recognise carers as people with their own support needs, while also recognising the knowledge and insight they bring. For me, that comes back to education, relationships, and culture. When services create opportunities to learn from carers' experiences and genuinely value their perspectives, it helps build more compassionate, collaborative, and recovery-oriented care for everyone involved.

4. What does meaningful collaboration between carers, people with lived experience and mental health professionals look like to you?

Meaningful collaboration is based on mutual respect, shared learning and a recognition that different forms of expertise have value. It moves beyond consultation and creates opportunities for lived experience perspectives to genuinely influence decisions.

For me, good collaboration occurs when consumers, carers and professionals work together as partners, bringing different perspectives while remaining focused on a common goal: improving mental health care and outcomes. It also involves being transparent about how feedback is used and demonstrating that lived experience contributions have shaped decisions and actions.

5. What does World Mental Health Day mean to you, and why is it important to recognise the experiences and contributions of carers alongside those of people accessing mental health care?

World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness, challenge stigma and celebrate the many people who contribute to mental health and wellbeing within our communities.

It is important to recognise carers because they are often an unseen part of the mental health system. Carers provide support, advocacy, encouragement and practical assistance, often over many years. Acknowledging their experiences does not take attention away from people accessing care; rather, it helps us recognise that mental health challenges affect families, relationships and communities as well as individuals. Recognising the contributions of carers alongside consumers helps create a more complete understanding of mental health and recovery.

6. What advice would you give to someone who is considering becoming involved in carer advocacy or lived experience advisory work?

I'd probably start by saying that you don't have to be an expert to get involved. For me, it took a while to recognise that my experiences as a carer and my lived experience perspective had value beyond my own situation. Like many people, I initially saw what I'd been through as "just my experience", but over time I realised that those experiences can offer important insights into how services, systems and supports work in practice.

My advice would be to start where you feel comfortable and find opportunities that genuinely interest you. That might be joining an advisory group, participating in a consultation, contributing to education, or simply sharing your perspective when the opportunity arises. There isn't one right way to be involved.

I've also learned that it's important to be mindful of your own wellbeing. Lived experience work can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be emotional at times. Finding the right supports, setting boundaries and knowing when to step back are just as important as knowing when to step forward.

What keeps me involved is seeing how powerful people's stories, experiences and insights can be. Some of the most meaningful changes I've seen haven't come from one big idea, but from people being willing to share their perspectives, listen to others and work together to make things better. I genuinely believe that lived experience knowledge can help shape better systems, stronger cultures and better outcomes for the people who come after us.

For me, that's what this work is really about, creating opportunities for people to learn from one another and ensuring that the voices of consumers, carers and communities are not only heard, but valued and acted upon.