Karen Bates is a Barkindji woman and Executive Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs at Mental Health First Aid. With more than 26 years’ experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing across clinical, community, and education settings, Karen is a passionate advocate for culturally informed and safe mental health training and support.
“The suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is more than double that of non-Indigenous Australians,” she says. “It’s the leading cause of death for our young people aged five to 17. In remote communities, the rates are even higher.”
Karen says these tragic outcomes are compounded by intergenerational trauma, grief and loss, along with significant barriers to accessing culturally informed mental health services.
“There’s stigma, there’s well-founded mistrust of government services, and there are assumptions made about our people. That all makes it harder for individuals and communities to reach out for support,” she says.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program exists to break down those barriers, by supporting communities from within.
“All of our program staff are First Nations people from communities across Australia. Our courses are developed and delivered by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, with deep local knowledge and a focus on social and emotional wellbeing,” Karen explains.
Karen describes the program as strengths based, culturally grounded and empowering.
“We don’t take a deficit approach. We start from a place of acknowledging the strengths of our people, our knowledge systems, healing practices and resilience that have sustained us for tens of thousands of years. The course is about adding to that existing toolkit and supporting self-determination,” she says.
To grow the reach and impact of the program, Mental Health First Aid is raising funds to train 20 new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Instructors in 2026.
“The funds will allow us to train more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander instructors in local communities, where they can deliver culturally safe courses that reflect local needs. We want to ensure our training is accessible and reduce the barriers of becoming MHFA champions in their own communities.”
Funds raised will also support the development of course materials and allow the program to better meet the needs of priority areas.
“We want to make sure we can sit down on Country, connect away from the typical classroom environment, and still have those powerful yarns about mental health and wellbeing,” she said.
When asked what she’d say to potential donors, Karen is clear.
“I would encourage people to support the program so we can train local people to support all Australians. Not just First Nations people, everyone. These conversations can change lives,” she said.
Karen recalls a story shared by an Instructor: “A participant came up after the course and said thank you, because they’d just used what they learned to help someone get the support they needed. That’s the impact we’re talking about.”
See the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander MHFA in action:
Will you make the pledge?
Your pledge, donation or fundraising effort will help to fund 20 more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander MHFA Instructors in 2026 – expanding culturally safer, evidence-based support to more communities across Australia.
Together, we can keep the movement growing – one conversation at a time.
