Wayahead

BOUNCEBACK Art Exhibition - with Arts in Recovery (AIR) - Newcastle
2025-10-16 - 2025-10-26 | The Creator Incubator, 15a/50 Clyde St, Hamilton North, NSW, 2292
Arts in Recovery (AIR) are holding their 15th Bounceback Exhibition. Around 250 works by local people living with mental health will be exhibited and are for sale. Works include paintings, ceramics, mosaics, drawings, sculpture, jewellery and more. 100% of sales are returned to the artists.
Opening night: Saturday 18th October 2025 at 5pm – 7pm.
Exhibition open Thursday-Sunday – 16th-26th October 2025

Meet your Neighbour Inner West 2025
2025-10-21 10:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Ashfield Town Hall, 260 Liverpool Road, Sydney, NSW, 2131, Australia
Join a special Meet your Neighbour event marking 10 years of the Mental Health Peer Work qualification in the Inner West of Sydney.
Connect with others working to support people with lived experience of mental health in Sydney.
This year’s event during Mental Health Month marks MHCC’s 10 years of delivering the CHC43515 Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work – a qualification created for peer workers, by peer workers that has strengthened mental health services, and amplified the voice of lived experience across NSW and Australia.
Be the first to see the launch of a feature video highlighting Max Simensen’s journey into peer work – a former student and now trainer, whose own lived experience and professional journey reflect the transformative power of peer work.
Engage in a panel discussion exploring the growth and future of the peer workforce, featuring lived experience leaders and sector experts.

Stories of Strengths: Mental Health and Community in Diversity
2025-10-21 10:30 - 13:30 | Woodcroft Neighbourhood Centre, 65 Woodcroft Drive, Woodcroft, NSW, 2767, Australia
Stories of Strengths: Mental Health and Community in Diversity”
The event will be a community-led mental health initiative designed to foster open dialogue, reduce stigma, and promote emotional wellbeing among women from CALD backgrounds in Blcaktown LGA.
The event will centre around storytelling and creative expression, inviting women from CALD backgrounds to share personal journeys of resilience, healing, and mental health experiences in a culturally inclusive space. Through a combination of storytelling circles, creative arts workshop, and a community wellness showcase, the event will aim to promote culturally safe conversations about mental health and highlight the importance of community support.
Objectives:
*Reduce stigma around mental health in CALD communities
*Create culturally safe platforms for shared healing and dialogue
*Promote awareness of local and culturally responsive mental health services
*Empower participants through storytelling and creative expression
* Strengthen community connections and collective resilience

Chill Chat and Chow - Mindful Arvo
2025-10-21 15:00 - 17:00 | Carrington Park, 22-32 carrington rd, Wahroonga, NSW, 2076, Australia
Come to Carrington Park after school for an arvo of mindfulness, where you can
CHILL CHAT AND CHOW with us.
Free BBQ – Free Resource pack for the first 100 youth – FREE Mindful activities

Healing Through Culture – Liverpool Plains
2025-10-22 09:00 - 12:00
In 2025, Benchmark Certified will deliver Healing Through Culture – Liverpool Plains, a culturally safe community event held during Mental Health Month in October. Building on the success of our 2024 program in Walhallow, this year’s event will expand to include surrounding communities. The initiative aligns with the theme “Taking Steps on Your Wellbeing Journey”, encouraging individuals to engage in culturally grounded conversations around mental health and healing. The event will be co-designed and implemented in partnership with local Elders, Aboriginal organisations, and health providers.

Comedy for a Cause in support of Laugh the Blues Away
2025-10-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Cronulla RSL, 38R Gerrale St, Cronulla NSW 2230, Cronulla, New South Wales, 2230, Australia
Laugh the Blues Away is coming to the Shire! Join us for a special Comedy for a Cause showcase featuring some of Australia’s top comedians – headlined by the brilliant Peter Berner – as we launch our brand-new not-for-profit dedicated to lifting community spirits. These free shows break down stigma around mental health, provide access to local resources, and prove that laughter really is the best medicine. With thanks to Sharks Kareela for sponsoring our very first show, this promises to be the best comedy show of the year – and it’s free!

Shifting Perspectives: Mental Illness in Literature
2025-10-25 14:30 - 15:30 | Hornsby Library, Room 8 28-44 George Street, Hornsby NSW 2077, Hornsby Library, Room 8 28-44 George Street, Hornsby, NSW, 2077, Australia
Fiction can provide a platform to discuss mental illness in everyday life and help reduce stigma. Stories can show that people are more than their illness. In their books Salsa in the Suburbs and Exuberance, Alejandra Martinez and Bel Vidal have created characters with complex lives, experiencing both good and difficult times. They show that there are times when mental health conditions can be disabling and at other times, people can thrive.

Writing characters living with mental health issues can also give readers space to reflect on their own experiences.

Bel and Alejandra, in conversation with Veronica Macdonald, Lifeline Macarthur Western Sydney CEO, will talk about writing mental illness into stories, and how their own lived experience informs their work.

Breathwork sessions for the adoption community
2025-10-26 13:30 - 15:30 | Zenly, Studio 8, 1-7 Unwins Bridge Road, St Peters, NSW, 2044, Australia
This October – Mental Health Month – please join PARC for a series of breathwork
sessions to learn about and experience the nurturing benefits of breathwork.
Enjoy a journey incorporating breath, meditation and music.
The in person sessions are offered to people who are adopted, offering a safe space to
connect in with yourself and with others following the session over a light afternoon tea.
Breathwork is a somatic modality (of the body) that invites you to practice different breath
patterns. Consciously using your breath is key to releasing tension, stress, emotions, helping you
access different emotional states, shifting the energy from within your body and offering lots of
ongoing health benefits.
These events are made possible thanks to a Wayahead Mental Health Month Grant. Wayahead is
a service dedicated to supporting people across NSW to improve and support their mental health
and wellbeing. This year’s Mental Health Month theme ‘Taking Steps on Your Wellbeing Journey’
fits well with our Breathwork se
