Mental Health Family Carer Needs and Service Navigation Challenges: A Five-Year Retrospective Analysis of Family Peer-Led Telephone Support Records

Governments, public and mental health initiatives, policies, and guidelines recognise the value of family and informal carers. However, family, carers and supporters experience challenges with service engagement and insufficient support for their psychosocial wellbeing. Tandem Carers, a mental health family carer community advocacy body in Victoria, Australia, established a carer lived-experience peer worker telephone support service to address psychosocial and practical supports. An exploratory descriptive study retrospectively analysed data from family peer telephone support records, from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2025. A team of family carer lived-experience workers, policy staff, a data-management officer, and academic researchers undertook descriptive statistical analysis of over 17,000 records. Findings identified service demand, reasons for calling and demographics of callers, including age, location, and identity. Reasons for calling the service included assistance with system navigation, non-legal advocacy support, managing the National Disability Insurance Scheme, seeking information, financial challenges, counselling, and psychosocial support. Alongside understanding needs and systemic gaps, emerging patterns informed learning across the 5-year period to drive advocacy and service and policy change. Family carer co-production principles guided methodological approaches, resulting in practice-informed evidence of demand and the need for future outcome evaluation of the service and development of the model of peer practice.