MHCN is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Jenny Learmont, President of Mental Health Carers NSW (formerly Arafmi NSW), on the morning of Saturday, May 3rd, 2025. Jenny will be remembered as a determined long-term community advocate for better recognition and support of mental health carers, as well as for broader mental health reform.

Jenny has been a member of Mental Health Carers NSW (MHCN)’s Board since 2012 and President since 2019 but had a long career in mental health and other community advocacy before that. Notably, in 2005, Jenny was a founding member and later chair of the NSW Consumers Advisory Committee, which evolved into BEING, the peak body for mental health consumers and our partner organisation.
However, Jenny’s advocacy journey began during the AIDS crisis, where she led a research team into the long-term non-progression of HIV in a cohort of blood transfusion recipients at the NSW Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, becoming an Honorary Associate of the Centre for Virus Research at the Westmead Millennium Institute.

Jenny later turned her focus to mental health after one of her children faced mental health challenges, leading her to establish the Anxiety Disorders Alliance (ADA) in 1990, a committee of volunteers from the NSW Mental Health Association (now Wayahead). In 1996, Jenny was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her eminent service to the community, and in recognition of her contributions, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine degree by the University of NSW. In 2006, Jenny expanded ADA, founding the Anxiety Disorders Association NSW Inc. (ADAN), where she served as president from 2006 to 2015. There are now 30 Wayahead support groups for consumers and carers of anxiety disorders across NSW, as a result.

More recently, Jenny received the ‘Julie Leitch Leadership Through Lived Experience Award’ at the 2024 Mental Health Matters Awards, hosted by Wayahead, and received a Lifetime Membership at the 50th Anniversary Celebration for Mental Health Carers NSW, hosted at Parliament House last year.
In June 2024, Jenny spoke in Canberra at the announcement of the creation of the national peak body for mental health carers, Mental Health Carers Australia, by Minister Emma McBride. This event marked 50 years of advocacy by mental health carer organisations across the country. Jenny also served as a long-term member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and had only recently stepped down in early 2025.

In addition to her remarkable accomplishments as an advocate, volunteer, and innovator in mental health and carer advocacy, we will remember Jenny as a warm, funny, approachable person who devoted a lot of her time and effort to helping make the community of NSW a better and more supportive place for people who experience mental health concerns and their families and carers. Jenny’s tireless dedication to her caring role, her advocacy work and her willingness to take on stigmatised causes, such as her work during the HIV crisis and her later efforts in mental health reform, will always be remembered. Through it all, she maintained a sense of grace and humour that endeared her to everyone she worked with.

She will be deeply missed by the MHCN board and staff, as well as the many other organisations, communities and individuals whose lives she impacted. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Jenny’s fiancé of 35 years, Ian, and the rest of her family during this difficult time. In lieu of flowers for Jenny’s funeral at 1.30pm on 16 May 2025, at the Macquarie Crematorium and Cemetery, Ian has requested that people wishing to pay tribute to Jenny should make a donation to MHCN. If you would like to do so, please send an email to mhcnadmin@mentalhealthcarersnsw.org