2. The Charter

The Charter history

2011 - 2014
  • In 2011, the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) identified an opportunity to create a communications charter that could provide a blueprint for the way organisations working within and around the mental health and suicide prevention sector communicate publicly about mental health and suicide. A working group including 20 organisations from the sector was established to develop the charter.
  • The charter was officially launched in 2014 and was designed to be a dynamic document, continuously evolving and adapting. The charter was hosted on the Mindframe website.
2017 - 2018
  • The Charter was re-developed by Everymind in consultation with the mental health and suicide prevention sectors and under the guidance of a Champions Group, representing mental health and suicide prevention sectors, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, LGBTI people, people with lived experience of suicide and mental illness and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
  • The primary purpose of this re-development was to ensure all information in the Charter was recent and relevant. The Charter’s eight principles were established.
  • The National Communications Charter: A unified approach to mental health and suicide prevention was launched by the Federal Health Minister, the Hon. Greg Hunt, on 5 September 2018 and was hosted on the Life in Mind portal.
<p>Minister for Health, Hon. Greg Hunt launching the National Communications Charter</p>
Minister for Health, Hon. Greg Hunt launching the National Communications Charter
<p>Georgie Harman, CEO <em>Beyond Blue</em></p>
Georgie Harman, CEO Beyond Blue
<p>Nicole Cockayne, Black Dog Institute</p>
Nicole Cockayne, Black Dog Institute
<p>Jaelea Skehan, Director <strong>Everymind</strong></p>
Jaelea Skehan, Director Everymind
<p>Jason Trethowan, CEO headspace</p>
Jason Trethowan, CEO headspace
<p>Frank Quinlan, CEO Mental Health Australia</p>
Frank Quinlan, CEO Mental Health Australia
<p>Catherine Lourey, NSW Mental Health Commissioner</p>
Catherine Lourey, NSW Mental Health Commissioner
2022
  • The Charter was reviewed, and some minor changes were made to language throughout the booklet to reduce jargon and simplify the actions for implementation.
2023 - 2024
  • The Charter was reviewed and re-developed. This included re-development of the Charter booklet as well as all supporting tools and resources.
  • Content was revised and language was standardised to align with the latest recommended safe language guidelines following development of the Mindframe Our words matter: Guidelines for language use.
  • The Charter principles were condensed to seven principles, with the inclusion of a new principle relating specifically to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
  • Two online learning modules were developed to support signatories understand the Charter principles and learn how to implement them in various contexts.
  • In April 2024, the updated National communications charter (the Charter) was released.

N.B The Charter is an iterative document, which will continually be reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant and reflects the evolving nature of language used when communicating about mental health concerns and suicide through the voice of people with lived and living experience, and latest research.