How Carer Assist Can Help

Carer Assist is a service of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW and is the selected non-governement organisation to provide individual advocacy, support, education and training programs to families and carers of someone who has a mental illness in partnership with the Greater Southern, Hunter New England and Sydney South West Area Health Services.


The service is part of the NSW Family and Carer Mental Health Program and is funded by the NSW Department of Health through the Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Office.



Carer Assist can help families and friends by: 

• Providing information and support to cope with the grief of diagnosis.
• Providing information and education on how to live with someone who has a mental illness.
• Providing assistance in building support systems
• Providing or sourcing extra support in times of crisis.
• Assisting with navigation of the mental health system.
• Assisting with advocacy when their requirements or those of the person they are caring for are not met or are not being appropriately met.

Carer Assist covers all mental illnesses, not only schizophrenia, and all services are offered on an individual basis in a sensitive and confidential manner. The Family and Carer Mental Health Program has been established to enhance and compliment health services and for health professionals to have a referral point for carers of people with a mental illness, to provide holistic services to families and consumers.