Even Keel Support Association

Even Keel Support Association (Even Keel or EK) provides mutual support and self-help services by offering information and peer support to adults with a lived experience of mental illness.

When our organisation started in October 1984, we mainly focused on Bipolar Disorder, (or what was referred to then as Manic Depressive Disorder.) As the years progressed so too did our range of activities to provide support and information services for consumers with Bipolar and related disorders (e.g. Schizophrenia, Depression, etc.) and for their families, friends and carers.

Today we are a small yet vital organisation that supports individuals with any mental illness. We also assist and support carers, families, friends and colleagues of people with any mental illness or distress.

Even Keel encourages individuals along the realistic path to long-term recovery. From the first day of contact with our service to years later, individuals are assisted by our staff and volunteers with the process of recovery.

Our organisation educates and informs people about the different challenges that are faced by individuals with a mental illness and the various issues that come with having a diagnosis. We help people come to terms with what it means to have a diagnosis, and teach them the coping skills to live well within the community.

Even Keel contributes to raising awareness about the issues surrounding mental illness and mental health through educational presentations at universities and ongoing community service announcement.

Our organisation promotes awareness and provides information to all members of the public, to assist them in understanding the difficulties mental illness bring to an individual’s personal, social life and which influences society as a whole.

The programs that Even Keel have to offer people with mental health problems are designed to develop and maintain skills required for daily living, social interaction and increase their participation within the community to enable them to regain and/or gain a sense of belonging. In order to achieve this outcome, we supply the opportunity for them to build and sustain personal well-being. With personal well-being comes optimism for the future and a sense of empowerment through building, sustaining or reconnecting common relationships with their families and friends, to extend existing networks and encourage communities to accept the people for who they are.

We are confident that we assist individuals who have mental illness to develop skills and abilities to maximise their capacity to live within the community and to engage them in our support programs.

Our mutual support and self-help group based services help the individuals to identify and develop new skills and personal resilience to build a satisfying life despite having a mental illness diagnosis.

One of the most powerful tools a person can use in their journey of recovery from their mental illness is a support group. Even Keel’s peer support groups assist all to gain greater understanding of mental illness and promote recovery. They are open to anyone over the age of eighteen.

Our groups are informal and friendly, focusing on sharing common experiences such as how having a mental illness affects your life and the impact on others around you. Also the stresses of day-to-day living, coping strategies that can assist. We supply general information and assist in identifying appropriate referral options.

For the individuals it helps them to take control of their own health through encouraging medication compliance, supporting choices for improved self-management practices and identifying behaviour triggers that can cause ill health.

For family, friends and carers (even associates or colleagues) our support groups offer openness to discuss things such as risk-taking behaviours and provide tips on how to manage all aspects of mental illness better.

A support group provides friendly, informal meetings for people who have had a lived experience of mental illness and it provides an opportunity to discuss common problems and how best to live with this serious and often debilitating illness.

The uniqueness of Even Keel Support Association’s groups is that our facilitators have their own personal experience and are caring, supportive, and empathetic. Because of our lived experiences and training, we have an understanding of what every participant brings and shares with everyone present.

This gives people an opportunity to speak about themselves without fear of stigma or judgement.

Many people find that the real value of a group is the time to talk with others about living with a mood disorder. Most individuals that use our service commend the high level of commitment of staff and volunteers. They noted the importance of having a shared experience with mental illness and one member stated that it “makes a big difference in understanding” the issues.

Even Keel is primarily a mutual support and self-help organisation providing information and peer support to people with a lived experience of mental illness.

We improve community engagement by running these mutual support and self-help support groups in various locations in the metropolitan area including the Peel region, as well as one mutual support and self-help group in the South West region of Western Australian in Busselton. Even Keel also facilitates in-patient information sessions at the majority of the psychiatric treatment facilities around the metropolitan and Peel region.

The purpose of our service is to provide comprehensive, culturally appropriate and flexible support, based on the individual needs of the people that engage in our service. Individual needs will be determined based upon the development and implementation of individual plans, such as the Personal Care Plan we have developed as a program based out of our head office.

Personal Care Plans help to identify the requirements and expectations that the individual has, and enable them to reintegrate into their community. These Personal Care Plans have a holistic and strong focus on enhancing social inclusion, recovery and the capacity for people to achieve their desired goals and live in the community. These plans incorporate formal and informal supports to assist individuals to integrate more appropriately into the community.

Our support staff encourage each person to identify their needs, goals, aspirations, strengths and resources and use the Personal Care Plans to help identify the type and level of supports that would be most beneficial. These plans identify the strategies that individuals have in place and how we as an organisation can help provide directly or indirectly the required type and level of support that the individual requires.

The individualised Personal Care Plan demonstrates who is to be involved in the services and supports of the individual and assistance in the decision-making process of that individual.

Our members are encouraged to use documentation that we supply, such as, Beyond Blue information sheets, booklets and other resources to create a support strategy for their primary carers and other support networks around them.

Even Keel Support Association has an impressive library, which consists of over 670 books, CD's and DVD's - we are slowly establishing our Busselton location to have a similar resource centre and library. As a paid member of EK individuals can borrow books for up to two weeks and exchange them when required. Lots of our members donate old books that they have finished with to our library - so we have a diverse range of topics - just email us if you are interested....

We also have an extensive resource centre which has free publications that cover a diverse range of situations such as Beyond Blue information sheets and booklets on a majority of mental illnesses that occur within the community, recovery, treatment options and costs. Even Keel also has accumulated other publications from different organisations relating to topics such as alcohol and other drug addictions, caring for carers, dual diagnosis and comprehensive medication information reference books.

We have special packs containing information for people who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. These packs are written in languages such as Cambodian, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Vietnamese. We also have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders specific brochures. These brochures are available on Depression and Anxiety and include Guide for Carers: Caring for Others and Caring for Yourself. If required our service would work collaboratively with local ethno-specific agencies and organisations to utilise their expertise.


Even Keel Support Association produces an informative newsletter that we deliver to all paid members and corporate members. These newsletters incorporate relevant information for people with diagnosed mental illness and their carers. We also ensure that at time of publication references to the articles are included within the newsletter, sometimes current members contribute to our newsletter through poems, inspirational quotes and their own story. Throughout our in-patient, support groups and some private hospitals in Perth we distribute this newsletter, as well as to individuals who attend our mutual support and self-help groups.

Our organisation works collaboratively with other organisations to achieve our goal of finding the best course of recovery for our members or individuals that engage in our services.

We participate in many mental health awareness days and other events throughout the year. We have also attended a variety of stalls with our staff and volunteers promoting our services to the public.