Eunice Lonergan Carer Respite Grants

A carer is a family member or friend who provides unpaid support and care to a loved one experiencing a mental illness.

Some of the things you might do as a carer are:

• Practical support – Cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, paying bills or interpreting for a family member.
• Emotional support – Listening, monitoring moods and behaviours, encouraging or providing a shoulder to lean on.
• Personal support – Assisting with medication, bathing, feeding, lifting/moving, toileting or dealing with emergencies.

You don’t have to be the main person looking after or supporting someone to be considered a carer.

You don’t have to receive the Carer Payment or Carer Allowance from Centrelink to be considered a carer.

Please feel free to reach out to MHCN and have a chat with someone from the team if you are unsure if you are a carer: mhcnadmin@mentalhealthcarersnsw.org, or 02 9332 0777.

You must:

• Be a member of MHCN.
• Care for someone with a diagnosed mental illness.
• Live with the person you care for.
• Be 18 years old or above.
• Be a resident of NSW.

If your name is drawn, you need to provide evidence that you meet the eligibility criteria above.

Unfortunately, no. You will receive a voucher for Flight Centre or Webjet. The voucher needs to be spent on travel and/or accommodation for a holiday. This is because Eunice’s will is a legal document that made very clear what the bequest left to MHCN had to be spent on which needs to be adhered to.

When you become a member of MHCN, you will be asked if you think you are eligible to receive a grant, based on the above eligibility criteria.

If you select ‘yes’, when MHCN runs a draw, your name will go into the draw where we will select at random the name or names of someone to receive a grant.

MHCN will email all members who are eligible to go into the draw, when there is an upcoming draw.

Please only select ‘yes’ if you believe you meet all of the eligibility criteria.

MHCN will email all members who are eligible to go into the draw, when there is an upcoming draw.

• If your name has been drawn, MHCN will contact you via email.
• If your name has not been drawn, you won’t be contacted.

We will then give you an application form for you to fill out with your personal details and a statutory declaration. You will need to fill in the application and get someone to complete the statutory declaration, and send this to MHCN via email or via post.

We need a statutory declaration to prove that you meet the eligibility criteria to receive the grant.

The statutory declaration would be written by someone known to you and your loved one, like a GP, psychiatrist, psychologist, etc. They can write the statutory declaration to say that they can confirm that your loved one has a diagnosis of a mental health issue, and knows that you both live together.

We don’t require or want any personal details about the person for whom you care for.

Once we have your application, we will give it to our Board. Our Board need to assess whether they believe you are eligible to receive the grant based on your application to ensure that our legal obligations are met.

They will then either approve or deny your application. MHCN will let you know of the outcome of your application regardless of the outcome.

If you are successful, MHCN will organise to provide you a travel voucher to the sum of $1000 to use to pay for your holiday (travel + accommodation).

A statutory declaration (also known as a stat dec) is a written statement which a person swears, affirms or declares to be true in the presence of an authorised witness — usually a Justice of the Peace (JP), lawyer or notary public. An NSW statutory declaration is made under the Oaths Act 1900.

A statutory declaration from a 3rd party will be required as evidence for your application. We need this to make sure that you are eligible to receive the travel voucher.

Statutory declarations are commonly used to allow a person to declare something to be true for the purposes of satisfying some legal requirement or regulation when no other evidence is available.

It is an offence to lie in a statutory declaration.

The person who needs to fill in the stat dec needs to be a 3rd party – they could be your loved one’s GP, psychiatrist, support worker, etc.

They 3rd party will have need to have seen evidence from you that your loved one has a diagnosed mental illness, and that you and your loved one live together, then fill in and sign the stat dec confirming this.

Providing a stat dec means that you do not have to provide us with any sensitive information or documents about your loved one’s diagnosis and care.

We will give you a stat dec template as part of your application, for you to use. Your application requires the stat dec, otherwise your application will be denied.

Any information you provide such as your name, phone number, address, statutory declaration etc., will be stored securely according to the MHCN Advocacy Network Policy, and Privacy and Confidentiality Policy.

The information that is stored is password protected and can only be accessed by MHCN staff members.

Signing up to our membership is quick and easy! You can sign up to our membership here!

Sign up today

Once you sign up, you are a member of MHCN for life, however we will check in every 3 years to make sure your contact details are up to date.

If you don’t want to be a member of MHCN anymore, that is perfectly fine. You can let us know at any time you do not wish to be a member. However, this means that you will not be eligible for a grant.

For more information, you can visit the membership section on our website here:

Find out more

No, you must be a member of MHCN – however, signing up to our membership is quick and easy. You can sign up to our membership on our website here.

Sign up today

That’s okay – if you aren’t sure, you can contact MHCN and ask, at mhcnadmin@mentalhealthcarersnsw.org or 02 9332 0777.

That’s okay! You can contact one of MHCN’s friendly team who can help sign you up – mhcnadmin@mentalhealthcarersnsw.org or 02 9332 0777.

You will be awarded $1,000 in the form of a voucher from Flight Centre or Webjet to spend on travel and accommodation for a break from caring duties.

The voucher can only be spent on accommodation (e.g., motel, hotel, caravan park etc.) and travel (e.g., plane, bus, taxi, etc.).

All other costs associated e.g., meals, drinks, activities, must be paid for yourself. MHCN will not pay for these costs.

This is also subject to the terms and conditions of the travel voucher from Flight Centre and Webjet.

The gift voucher is valid for 3 years from the date of purchase.

If you don’t spend the full $1000 in one go, that is okay.

You can use the remainder of the voucher for another trip, so long as it is used within 3 years of the date of purchase of the voucher.

Any unused funds on the gift card can’t be cashed out from Flight Centre or Webjet.

You can use the voucher for a break in NSW, or anywhere in Australia. If you wish, you can use it to contribute to an international holiday of your choosing – subject to Flight Centre and Webjet and the options on their websites.

That is okay, but you would have to pay the difference yourself.

Yes, you can bring the person you care for on your break with you, or other family members.

However, the main purpose of your break needs to be respite from caring activities. That means, the break should not be focused on you providing caring duties, but for you to have fun and/or relax.

If your application is accepted, we will ask that you read and sign a policy that outlines some guidelines around spending your $1000 voucher, which are in line with the legal parameters of the grant.

Additionally, at the end of your break, we will send you a short evaluation form to find out how you found your experience, and if you think the break helped.