ABC Radio National Interview – Carers Week 2026

For National Carers Week, MHCN CEO, Jonathan Harms, and Laura Knight, Carer and MHCN Organisational Development Manager, spoke with Fran Kelly on The Radio National Hour. They spoke about the everyday reality of caring for a loved one with mental illness, and MHCN’s podcast, Caring Between Minds, hosted by Patty Kikos.

Laura has cared for her mum, who lives with schizophrenia, for most of her life. She spoke openly about the mix of emotions carers carry, and her advice for others:

“Caring can be hard. It can be complex. We do it because we love our people… There’s a lot of emotions that can go with caring, like grief and love, and these things can coexist at the same time. So do not feel guilty about the range of emotions that you’re feeling.”

Jonathan spoke about why carers so often end up as the advocate in a system that offers little between crisis care and recovery: “We don’t provide much more than emergency and acute care, and that’s actually not when people make their recovery.”

He also pointed to the scale of carers’ unpaid contribution, and the lack of support they receive in return: “There’s been recent studies which have shown that in dollar values, the families and carers of people with mental health concerns actually provide more support than all the state and federal mental health services put together… These [NDIS] changes are handing back thousands of hours of work and risk to carers.”

When asked how she felt about the recent NDIS changes, Laura said: “Carers save the government millions of dollars. This is how we’re repaid. It’s not good enough.”

Hear the full interview on ABC listen: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-radio-national-hour/how-to-care-for-our-mental-health-carers/107264672

Listen to Caring Between Minds wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.mentalhealthcarersnsw.org/podcast-series-caring-between-minds/